Weather Watch: An unusual week

It's icecream weather - in some parts of the country, at least. Photo / Simon Baker

What an unusual week weather-wise. Starting on Monday with highs near 30 degrees, Auckland's strange late afternoon fog and then severe gales in Otago that caused damage and sadly took a life. Almost as fast as Monday started it all went quiet again on Tuesday.

Now we're seeing conditions comfortably getting in to a settled mode...but the lay out of air across New Zealand is creating 'blotchy' temperatures.

In the north unseasonable warmth remains during the days with highs in the late teens or early 20s across regions like Auckland, Waikato, Northland and Bay of Plenty. It's a similar story around Gisborne with highs in the early 20s most days this week.

A little further south and sea breezes are keeping temperatures down a few degrees in Napier (although it's still pleasant) while inland Hastings is around the 20 degree mark during the day.

Now as we creep further south the west to north west winds are blowing and they're keeping a lid on temperatures in the west from Taranaki to Kapiti - mid to lower teens are common place this week. Over the hill and Hutt Valley has been enjoying daytime highs in the late teens while more exposed Wellington city is only in the low teens.

The South Island is equally as strange with Nelson and Marborough climbing into the 20s while Kaikoura yesterday struggled to even reach the teens, spending most of the day between 8 and 12 degrees. A little further south and Christchurch started off cold but heated up in the afternoon...while even further south Oamaru and Dunedin basked in 19 degrees for much of the afternoon but inland and Gore spent Wednesday in single digits.

It's actually a forecaster's nightmare this weather...slight changes in wind direction, rather than strength, are having major impacts on temperatures. This will continue for another day or so before a developing low in the weekend brings more predictable temperatures across the country.

By the way, check out our current poll - "Grade New Zealand's national weather forecasts: A, B, C, D, E or F" - click here to cast your vote!

In Friday's blog: I'll take a look at the forecast rain for the weekend - who will get the wettest weather and where will be the dry, sunny, regions?

Top: It's icecream weather - in some parts of the country, at least. Photo / Simon Baker