Highs for most centres during weekend

Summer returned to many parts of New Zealand on Thursday thanks to warm winds blowing in from the northerly quarter.

In northern and southern centres many woke to a mild day with a number of towns and cities above 17 degrees at 7am. Dunedin was 20 degrees at 7am then climbed a little higher to 24 along with Oamaru, Ashburton, Kaikoura and Wanganui. But the nation's high was a summery 28 degrees in Alexandra and Timaru was close on 27. Many centres climbed in to the 20s - check out our Daily Debrief from yesterday for the high in your town.

Not all places started off warm though - Napier, Hastings and Taupo were all at the 6 or 7 degree mark first thing.

The next few days are looking very mild thanks to that warm northerly - from Kaitaia to Invercargill. Highs for Friday and Saturday will be between 18 and 22 degrees for most centres and overnight lows will stay away from freezing, so no frosts for at least the rest of this week and this weekend.

If you're wondering what the basic set up is at the moment, we have a large high to the east and a deep low to the south. The combination of those two systems brought the strong northerlies to the South Island yesterday while the top left hand side of that high brought in mild nor'easters to Auckland and Northland - and a 17 degree start yesterday.

A low in the sub-tropics is the next system to watch. This will deepen quickly over the weekend and start to push against that departing high to the east. This means strengthening north easterlies for the upper North Island and warmer nights (certainly compared to this time last week!) - temperatures overnight in the mid to upper teens for Auckland and Northland. Those winds will strengthen significantly on Tuesday with gales possible over the Hauraki Gulf, Thames and Eastern Waikato.

Many will be wanting the forecast of the sub-tropical low to come true as farms, gardens and water tanks dry up in many places. I've even heard some farmers mentioning the 'drought' word. After such a wet February for many areas the 6 weeks since then have been mostly dry. Rain is needed and coupled with the warmer northerlies it will be great for pasture growth.

This low may also bring big waves and swells around the North Island next week, anywhere from New Plymouth northwards to Northland then around the east coast down to Bay of Plenty.

Weather for the Hamilton 400 still looks fantastic too. If you're heading down for it or just watching it on TV conditions look often cloudy with little chance of showers. On Sunday there may be a late drizzle patch or shower and I'm a big fan of that late shower to throw the race into chaos. Check out our latest forecast for the Hamilton 400 here.

Philip Duncan

 

Tawharanui. Photo / Supplied