Northland will sweat under "cloudy, claggy and clammy" conditions until at least tomorrow but anyone complaining about it might like to remember only last week temperatures plunged to an unseasonable 6C in some parts of the region.
That is really chilly for this time of the year and quite a contrast with night temperatures on Sunday of around 16C, which made things sticky with high humidity, says MetService meteorologist John Law.
Mr Law, whose colourful prose is capable of making the forecast sound great whatever the weather, cheerfully adds "muggy and murky" to the stuff we have had already this week, as the remains of a front cling to the Far North.
Things should get a little cooler and wetter tomorrow afternoon and on Thursday morning, as a series of cheeky fronts off the Tasman play up over middle New Zealand and blow north, lingering - as usual - across Northland, Mr Law says. Daytime temperatures will drop from the low to mid 20Cs of earlier in the week and showers could turn to steadier rain tomorrow night, lightening up again on Thursday.
While the weather had been chilly at times and humid at others, the general trend was for things to settle down in mid-December, Mr Law said.