Mini heatwave to hit North Island's East Coast

The weather system that brought a mini heatwave to the South Island is moving up the North Island

The North Island's East Coast is set for a scorcher today as the mini heatwave that brought record-high temperatures moves up the country.

The heatwave, which sent December temperature records tumbling throughout the South Island, will give the North Island a brief blast of unusually hot days before Christmas.

MetService is forecasting the hottest place to be in New Zealand today is Hawke's Bay, where Hastings is expected to reach 32C and Napier 31C.

Up the coast Gisborne, Whakatane and Wairoa are expecting temperatures of 30 or just below.

Gisborne was on 24.9C at 9am today.

The weather system that brought a mini heatwave to the South Island is moving up the North Island

MetService duty forecaster Claire Flynn said eastern areas of the North Island would be bathed in glorious sunshine for most of the day.

"It's going to be a similar story to how things happened down south yesterday except whether or not temperatures get quite that high remains to be seen.

She said it would be a fine day for most of the day until a cold front, which was now being felt across the South Island, began to move up the island bringing rain, a southerly wind and cooler temperatures.

"Hastings [is] looking at a high of 32 today and then a high of 18 tomorrow," she said.

Today is cooler for the South Island after Christchurch, Oamaru and Dunedin surpassed previous highs and Timaru yesterday matched its hottest day ever.

After Dunedin bathed in a stunning 34.6C, the southern city was now rugging up with a cool 17C high today.

And although a front would bring rainy weather to the country for the next few days Ms Flynn said a ridge was poised to bring mainly fine weather, apart from a few isolated showers in the north, on Christmas Day.