Expect hotter weather this week

Heat is on the way for most of the country. Photo / Christine Cornege

The big dry has finally moved in after a topsy turvy summer. The large highs are now anchoring themselves over the country, bringing mainly sunny and settled weather to the whole of New Zealand. From Northland to Southland, conditions look calm and mostly hot this week – I think we'll see hotter weather this week for the more populated places than we did last week.

Also, a front that moved up the country yesterday and today has disintegrated while moving up the North Island – but the moisture is still partially there. That means more of those afternoon clouds and heavy showers, especially around the upper North Island.

But it's not fantastic news for farmers in the north. Northland is looking bone-dry for the next couple of weeks.

In the South Island Central Otago is also looking very dry and so are most places in between. In fact, any shower activity that does pop up this week will be mostly confined to the ranges.

For regions like Gisborne and Waikato some decent drying out weather will be good news, and after the recent heavy rains there will be some good grass-growing weather too.

Droughts are still possible in other areas. Not a lot of rain has made it to regions like Taranaki, inland Canterbury, Manawatu and of course Central Otago and Northland lately.

The large highs look like they'll dominate the country for at least the next seven days with no sign of any significant rain in the next 10 days. This is to be expected in February, though, so many places will just 'suck it up' then wait for March or April to see the heavy rains again.

I have a feeling that Autumn may come on quickly this year. I'm not sure why -it's just a feeling at this stage. Who knows, maybe a late start to a settled summer will mean a late start to Autumn, but something in me thinks otherwise.

I also have no problem with guessing this stuff...as I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of long range forecasts (beyond a month or two) so gut instinct can be just as accurate as some forecasts!