Auckland weather outlook: City to be as humid as Singapore as warm wet air lingers

If you live in Auckland and like feeling as if you’ve just stepped off a plane in the tropics, then you will be in luck on Monday morning.

Hot warm air from further towards the equator is still lingering around the north of the country, bringing balmy temperatures and soupy air.

MetService does not provide hour-by-hour humidity predictions, but according to Weather.com humidity in the City of Sails will hit a shirt-dampening 91 per cent as dawn breaks on Monday, the same figure the website predicts for Singapore at 7am local time.

On Friday, MetService observed that Hamilton’s humidity had hit 80 per cent with a dew-point of 21C and a temperature of 24C, comparable conditions to those experienced in the tropical latitudes and a far higher dew-point than is normal in New Zealand’s temperate climate.

Auckland is predicted to hit a high of 24C on Monday with light winds and isolated showers developing in the afternoon, possibly heavy.

Tuesday is predicted to be partly cloudy with the same high and a few showers clearing in the evening.

MetService forecaster Sonya Farmer said this week a moist northerly flow with embedded fronts would continue to affect the North Island.

“At the same time we’ve got a cold front moving to the South Island, which weakens on Tuesday,” she said.

“Out to the west of the country, we’ve got a complex low that crosses the North Island and Wednesday and then moves away to the east on Thursday.

“But we still have a trough affecting the South Island. so that means going forward, there is not a lot in the way of sunshine going on.”

Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Photo / Estelle Sarney

There was a moderate risk of thunderstorms yesterday afternoon and evening in the eastern Northland and central and eastern areas from Waikato through the central high country to Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, MetService said.

In the South Island, there was a moderate risk of afternoon and evening thunderstorms around the top of the South Island and the West Coast.

That risk would largely abate by Monday morning, MetService predicted.

Showers would become more common as the week wears on, with isolated showers possible for the whole country by Thursday, more widespread and possibly heavy by the evening, persisting on Friday.