Friends work up a sweat shooting hoops in muggy conditions at the Nixon Park basketball court in Kingsland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Friends work up a sweat shooting hoops in muggy conditions at the Nixon Park basketball court in Kingsland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
EDITORIAL
It's the last week of summer on the meteorological calendar but don't let that bring you down. The warm weather we've enjoyed of late is likely to go on.
Meteorologist Ben Noll says the next few weeks will look more like summer than the start of autumn.
True, thatalso means the warm and sticky nights are around a little longer also but even silver-lined weather can come with clouds.
Much of the North Island has been basking in warm temperatures this week in the mid-20s, mostly due to a stubborn high-pressure system to the east of the country holding weather systems in the tempestuous Tasman Sea at bay.
New Zealand currently sits in a weather lull which could reasonably be described as a meteorological happy place.
Weather movements being held away from New Zealand to the southwest in the Tasman Sea and the northwest in the Pacific Ocean. Image / earth.nullschool.net
According to Niwa, it might well be a wet first week of autumn but the rest of the month will continue to look and feel more like summer.
Niwa's outlook to April picks more long, hot dry spells around the country - and potentially less rainfall in those northern and eastern places feeling most of the heat.
The best news on the weather front is the total lack of warnings being currently issued by MetService. That's the very definition of the term "settled weather". After a year of record insurance claims for weather-related damage, that's something to be truly grateful for.
Whatever your plans are for the weekend and the weeks ahead, make of the most of this extended summery spell.
