The heat is on! Record-breaking summer for Hawke's Bay

Flaxmere's Shaira Takerei makes the most of the warm weather, which is not expected to last. Photo / Duncan Brown

With just five days of the season left, Hawke's Bay is tracking for its hottest summer since records began.

This is according to Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll, who said Hastings' mean temperature of 22.7C this summer was 4.1C above average, while Napier's mean temperature of 21.7C was 2.9C above average.

This is the highest for both centres since records began - in 1870 for Napier, and 1965 for Hastings.

Hawke's Bay is not alone. Niwa climate scientists say despite a sub-tropical storm and two ex-tropical cyclones, this summer has been the hottest for more than 100 places across the country, and could be the hottest in New Zealand's history.

Unless the remaining days of summer are "unprecedentedly cold" it will surpass an 80-year record.

Until now, the hottest summeron record was 1934/35 where the temperature was 1.8°C above the 1981-2010 average.

This summer is currently running at 2.3°C, 0.5°C above the previous record.

For the final weekend of summer, Hawke's Bay looks set to continue this balmy trend with temperatures set to reach 30C.

"Hawke's Bay is going to be one of the nicest places in New Zealand this weekend," Metservice Meteorologist Tui McInnes said.

It would be "cloudless and sunny", with already high temperatures rising as northwesterly gusts came off the ranges in the afternoon, "which will warm things up".

Mr McInnes said today was expected to be fine with a high of 25C. There could be light winds, and some few showers about the ranges during the afternoon and evening.

Sunday was forecast to be mainly fine with northerlies developing and a balmy high of 30C.

"Going forward the only downside is it looks like it could a bit of a wetter start to the week," he said. "After the weekend, it's back into more unstable weather."

Monday was expected to be mainly fine, with northerlies and a high of 28C, but the weekend's northwesterlies would be a "premonition of rain in on its way as a front comes up from the South Island".

"That southerly change will bring temperatures down relatively, just down from the high 20s, it'll still be in low 20s."

"There'll be a front with a bit of colder weather, but once that front passes over, there is a ridge that come over the country on Tuesday, or Wednesday. It'll start to clear things up but the cloud could be quite persistent."

There could be periods of rain on Tuesday, persistent about the ranges with gusty northerlies and a high of 26C. The climate could improve Wednesday, with cloud and southerlies and temperatures only reaching 23C.

Thursday and Friday were looking to be partly cloudy with not much wind. Rain was expected next weekend, the first in autumn.

Niwa's Mr Noll said the driver of this summer's remarkable warmth had been the marine heatwave.

"This has been a striking feature on both a regional and global climate scale," he said.

"It began at the end of November last year and has now persisted for three months. There have been three distinct peaks when sea surface temperatures were between 2 to 4°C above average: mid-December, late January and mid-late February."

It's been a record breaking summer for Mahia too - its wettest ever.