Anticyclone dominates Tasman Sea

If you loved the weekend sun and warmth then you're going to love the forecast for this week. A large high pressure system, also known as an anticyclone, is dominating the Tasman Sea. It stretches from Australia to New Zealand and is set to bring many kiwis a sunny, dry, week.

Northern and western regions will be the places to be at first with highs in the low to mid 20s for most people. Winds will be light or simply afternoon sea breezes. Later in the week northern and eastern regions will be the places to be as a west or nor'west winds develops ahead of a front.

So this week is a reminder that while the peak of the heat is behind us the peak of the cold is still a long way off.

So when will the cold eventually set in? Obviously it depends on where you live. For those in Southland the cold weather can often start to set in around now...we've seen that off and on this month but it hasn't really set in yet. Further north April is a common month for heavy rain and southern fronts to have more oomph in the north. I have a highly scientific formula at my home in Auckland to work out when the cold is officially 'set in'. It's taken me years to perfect this equation and from many months of research and discussions with others I find this system to be the best - winter officially kicks in when I light my fire for the first time.

It's one of those things I put off until I'm absolutely freezing...I know that once I light it I'll light it again and again and again, even on nights when perhaps I don't need to. I finally have all my wood stocked up and ready to go for the year (thanks to my brother who gave me 2 truck loads...in return he gets free weather forecasts from me....and beer) and although it's mostly dry I've placed the wood in the sun in my garage to dry out even more. For those who have log fires remember to only burn dry wood - the wet or damp stuff isn't as hot to burn and puts far more pollution into the atmosphere.

Anyway lets not get too bogged down in the upcoming chills. Summer-like conditions will remain for many this week. Even the overnight lows in Auckland and Northland will be pretty mild in the mid teens. Not bad when some regions are getting well down into the single digits these mornings.

South Islanders will also see warmer weather returning. Overnight lows may well be down but the daytime highs will rise back to around the 20 degree mark as the week goes on...and possibly mid to late 20s if a nor'wester kicks up at the end of the week for those in the east.

So a sunny, dry, week for many especially Tuesday to Thursday.

Tropical Cyclone?

Our tropical cyclone didn't form over the weekend. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology had "high" confidence a tropical cyclone would develop in the Coral Sea on Saturday or Sunday...but conditions have changed and now they rate the chances of a TC developing today as "low", Tuesday "moderate" and Wednesday is "low" again. The tropics and sub-tropics north of New Zealand are very active at the moment. We should be very thankful for that high in the Tasman Sea over the past 2 weeks...it saved us from Tropical Cyclone Hamish potentially moving in and it's stopped a number of big rain storms. Following February's flooding this is a great outcome for northern New Zealand.

Daylight Savings extension - is it working?

Are you coping with the earlier starts and longer evenings? Check out our Weather Watch story here and let us know if you're loving the new daylight savings...or hating it!

 

Philip Duncan

Pictured above: The Tasman Sea at Cape Reinga. Photo / Jan Ravlich