Your weather: Fine and settled autumn week for school holidays

Senior political reporter, NZ Herald·NZ Herald·

22 Apr, 2018 05:55 PM4 mins to read

Fine weather is forecast over nearly the whole country for most of the week. File photo

The second week of the school holidays is looking much better than the first, with fine weather forecast over much of the country.

While last week was plagued by rain and wind, this week will provide ample time for outdoor activities.

Auckland is in for a high of 18C today with just a few patches of cloud through the day. The weather will hover in the late teens and early 20s with fine weather through to Friday.

Weather-wise, the 2nd week of school holidays looks better than the 1st! 😎

North ⬆️

-Pick days: Wed-Thu 🌟

-A chilly start Mon! Isolated showers Tue. Cloud increasing Fri.

South ⬇️

-Pick days: Mon, Wed-Thu 🌟

-Showers S-W, dry N-E Tue. Rain W, cloud increasing E Fri. pic.twitter.com/YqPUYywQMI
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) April 22, 2018

MetService meteorologist Matthew Ford said the forecast was fairly similar throughout the country.

A light westerly flow will keep the east coast warm and sunny.

Gisborne is forecast to hit 20C today with full sun and light winds, with similar weather down the east coast.

In the South Island the weather is much of the same, only a few degrees cooler.

New Zealand is affected by southwesterlies today, allowing for plenty of blue skies for those sheltered in this flow. A ridge is expected to settle in over the North & upper South Island tomorrow bringing dry conditions for most before another cold front moves over on Tuesday ^AC pic.twitter.com/w0qtNY945f
— MetService (@MetService) April 22, 2018

Christchurch is in for a high of 16C today. However, that comes after a very chilly start to the day, dropping to 0C at 6am.

Due to a clear night over much of the country there were a few frosts in places.

Lake Pukaki was sitting at -2C at 5.30am, the Desert Rd just below 0C, and Central Otago stations below 0C.

Helping you to plan the next few weeks 📅

Next week: drier than the last several weeks, but not totally rain-free. Good for holidaymakers! 🌦️

Following week: late April/early May likely turns wet once again! ☔

Mid-May: unsettled weather likely continues; up & down. ↕️ pic.twitter.com/QDXtXtduJk
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) April 20, 2018

The only area to get any kind of "unsettled weather" this week, was Fiordland, Ford said.

"It is all pretty settled at the moment, due to a ridge of high pressure covering much of New Zealand.

"There will be areas of cloud in western areas of both the North and South Island, and some showers in Fiordland."

Tonight a small front arrives in Fiordland, bringing some rain to the Far South.

However, the high pressure system will stop this from making it much further up the country.

24 hour rainfall accumulations for the next 6 days. You can get all the detail for the forecasts in different regions from https://t.co/lbZO6LobHY ^Lisa pic.twitter.com/l3e0WKncPg
— MetService (@MetService) April 22, 2018

This general fine weather pattern will continue through the week.

"The ridge of high pressure will sit over the North Island through the week, keeping the weather fine and settled, while the South Island will get a mixture of fronts and ridges bringing more changeable weather, more of an autumnal flow," Ford said.

"The Wellington area will be getting a bit of both, generally not too bad but with the wind picking up from time to time."

On Thursday the ridge is forecast to start moving on, and on Friday a low may approach from the Tasman Sea, bringing more unsettled weather into the weekend.

Today's weather

• Whangarei

Cloudy. Light winds. 19C high, 11C overnight.

• Auckland

Partly cloudy. Light winds. 18C high, 13C overnight.

• Hamilton

Partly cloudy. Westerly breezes. 17C high, 10C overnight.

• Tauranga

Long fine spells. Southwesterly breezes. 18C high, 11C overnight.

• New Plymouth

Cloudy periods with chance shower. Southwest breezes. 16C high, 11C overnight.

• Napier