Everyone to enjoy the summer sun

Waimarama beach. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Some parts of New Zealand have had a fantastic summer this year... but the next couple of days will bring sunny, hot, weather to almost every one.

A very large high pressure system is spreading across the country and will bring several sunny, mostly dry, days to much of New Zealand.

But despite some inland areas climbing into the mid 30s most of the biggest centres are likely to miss out on really hot weather.

In fact I described the temperatures for most of our main centres as "fairly pathetic" for the middle of summer. A number of the main centres like Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin will be lucky to get up to 25 over the next few days. In fact Wellington southwards will likely only climb into the low 20s with some days only reaching teens especially on Sunday when a weak southerly moves through.

An easterly air flow means regions in the east will be affected by cooler air moving in from the Pacific Ocean. Once you get a bit inland things will really heat up. Central Otago and inland Canterbury will likely reach the low to mid 30s as will inland parts of Hawkes Bay, while inland parts of Manawatu, Waikato and Bay of Plenty should reach the late 20s. So it's certainly not cold...but the big centres wont be near the highest national temperatures.

The high is expected to bring mainly dry weather to all of New Zealand for the next seven days and firms up WeatherWatch.co.nz's comments the other day that Northland's weekend rain was an "isolated event". That's a real shame but hopefully before the moisture is all gone another low will move in.

I was driving through Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua yesterday. Rotorua still looked a little dry but Bay of Plenty and Waikato are very green... in fact, I don't think I've ever seen the Waikato region so green in February in all my life. It truly looks like the middle of November. Or perhaps an English summer with lush green grass and farm hedges all neatly cut.

It's positive news for most of the nations farmers... but fingers crossed more rain moves in to Northland within 2 weeks and some rain finally makes it to Central Otago.