Warmer days on way for Hawke's Bay but no risk of drought just yet

Levi Bond, 5, of Hastings, plays in the water feature's splash pad at Cornwall Park in the city in warm, sunny, spring weather. Photo / Duncan Brown

Temperatures are set to reach 23 this weekend in Napier and Hastings - and MetService says the warm weather is now here to stay.

Saturday will be the pick of the weekend for both towns, with Hastings forecast to reach 23 degrees and Napier set to reach 22.

Metservice meteorologist Lisa Murray said it would start warming up in Hawke's Bay over the next few weeks but it shouldn't worry farmers or growers in the area too much.

"Farmers and growers prepare for this, they have contingency plans."

"It has dried out rather rapidly which may have caught them off guard because they had a really good water supply at the beginning of October, and that soil moisture deficit is definitely changing very rapidly."

"But it's pretty normal for this time of year so far," Murray said.

Federated Farmers president Will Foley said weather conditions were verging on normal for this time of year.

"It's getting on the drier side but it's been such a good season and there's heaps of feed and grass around, so there's not too many people panicking or worried about too much at this stage.

"We know Hawke's Bay gets dry and that's what farmers expect, so I guess the best we're expecting is just a normal summer from here really," Foley said.

Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association president Lesley Wilson said the crops were looking pretty good.

"It's getting drier now so we're going to have to start thinking about irrigation fairly shortly if we don't get any significant rain.

"But a dry summer won't affect crop yield, as long as we can get water onto the soils and into the trees the hot summer gives us really good fruit quality," Wilson said.