Members of Go-Kan Ryu Karate-Do make the most of the weather during their end of year karate beach training session at Browns Bay, Auckland, on Sunday. Photo / Dean Purcell
Members of Go-Kan Ryu Karate-Do make the most of the weather during their end of year karate beach training session at Browns Bay, Auckland, on Sunday. Photo / Dean Purcell
The glorious weekend weather is set to continue, with fine and sunny conditions forecast for most of the country today.
Auckland is in for a fine day with a high of 25C, but isolated showers from late morning until evening.
The rest of the North Island will have similar conditions. The East Coast will be the pick of the bunch, getting warm northwesterlies.
The South Island's fine weather run will also continue, with temperatures in the mid 20s for most.
Yesterday's top temperature was Kawatiri in the Tasman region, which got all the way up to 29.6C.
While it was a warm and sunny weekend it for most, it started with thunderstorms across the North Island from Friday night into Saturday morning.
MetService recorded a total 33,218 lightning strikes in the 24 hours from 9am Friday to 9am Saturday. Of those, 27,087 were over the land in the North Island.
Karate Santa, aka Sensei Hayden Gwynne, from Go-Kan Ryu Karate-Do, leads his members as they celebrate their end of year karate beach training session at Browns Bay, Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
There was also localised flooding after heavy downpours associated with the event. Large hail, continuous lightning and a funnel cloud was witnessed near Taupō.
"Friday was a classic case of all the ingredients mixing together for a volatile day of thunderstorms," MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said.
"We had cold temperatures up high in the atmosphere, calm conditions with sea breezes and warm moist air down here on the ground and of course, some good strong summer sun."
Unfortunately, mother nature is replacing thunder with wind and rain from tomorrow.
A ridge of high pressure over the country will drift east as a complex trough moves onto the lower South Island from the south Tasman Sea.
"The calm conditions that helped exacerbate the thundery conditions have disappeared as a front moves onto the country from Tuesday," McInnes said.
"This is expected to bring some windy and wet conditions."
However, most can still enjoy a settled start to the week, particularly the North Island, as nice weather is forecast for a few days.
While the atmosphere over the North Island is certainly less hostile and “buoyant”, still enough rise in the air for impressive cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. This is looking southwest from Orewa. ~Chris pic.twitter.com/GM3eJSMTGJ
