Temperatures up to 30deg C set for tomorrow in South Island

Temperatures could be climbing into the 30s this week in some eastern parts of the country, for the first time since last summer.

‘‘We have a warm northwest flow coming off the Australian continent, and the wind is a foehn effect,’’ Niwa principal forecasting scientist Chris Brandolino said.

Places in the east of the South Island could be flirting with or exceeding 30 degrees Celsius tomorrow. ‘‘It’s certainly on the table.’’ It might not happen in a large population centre, but he would be surprised if it didn’t happen somewhere, Brandolino said.

The 30C mark was almost cracked on Saturday at Niwa’s office in Riccarton, Christchurch, where the temperature peaked at 29.9C. ‘‘I will be very shocked if we don’t at least have a very similar temperature,’’ Brandolino said.

Dunedin also got to 25.6C on Saturday. That temperature and the one in Christchurch were the warmest since mid-February, Brandolino said.

But MetService is not expecting similar heights for the South Island, with Christchurch forecast to hit 25C tomorrow.

Brandolino expects the South Island to cool down more by the end of the week, than does the North Island. By early next week, Brandolino expected the South Island to be turning warmer again.