Nine days with rain before Christmas for humid Hawke’s Bay

Grey clouds hanging over McLean Park, Napier, on Wednesday afternoon. Showers are likely to linger over the entire region until Christmas. Photo / Paul Taylor

Showers and humid nights are looking likely across Hawke’s Bay nearly every day in the lead-up to Christmas.

MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said tomorrow was likely to not be as wet as today, but scattered showers were likely in the afternoon for Hawke’s Bay.

“Beyond that Saturday and Sunday are similar, maybe a bit more wet than [Friday],” McInnes said.

“We’re still in these north-norwesterlies, so everything is coming off the ranges. Great for you guys because that tends to shelter it a bit.”

He said overnight temperatures had been noticeably warmer than normal in the region and would continue to be so.

“Once you start reaching the late teens, the magic number is just over 19C, people tend to start to have difficulty sleeping at night,” he said.

“We’re not quite that high, but we’re not that far off it.”

He said daytime temperatures would be around the mid to late 20s for urban centres like Napier and Hastings.

“Despite the fact that it is wet at times and generally cloudy, it is actually quite warm. Not that typical, clear skies, baking heat during the day sort of warm, it is sort of that more muggy, sticky, persistent warm.”

He said MetService was still a few days away from being able to give a good picture of what Christmas day would look like, but it was starting to build a picture.

From Sunday, the rainfall forecast in Hastings is at least 80 per cent for over 1mm and around 30 to 50 per cent for over 10mm every day until Christmas according to MetService’s computer weather modelling system.

From Sunday, the forecast in Napier is at least 70 per cent for over 1mm and around 30 to 70 per cent for over 10mm every day until Christmas.