Southland about to heat up
After a few days of windy, wet and cold weather, temperatures in Southland will start to climb again.
However, it will not be treated to temperatures in the 30s, like some places in the country.
‘‘We have a warm northwest flow coming off the Australian continent, and the wind is a foehn effect,’’ Niwa principal scientist-forecasting Chris Brandolino said. A foehn effect was where a mass of air dropped its moisture and warmed as it passed over a landmass, like a range of mountains.
‘‘The warm air mass is being warmed further by the foehn.’’
Places in the east of the South Island could be flirting with or exceeding 30 degrees Celsius tomorrow. The same could happen in Hawke’s Bay on Thursday. ‘‘It’s certainly on the table.’’
Invercargill is expected to reach 22C today and 23C tomorrow, before dropping down to 16C and 14C heading into the weekend.
The wind will remain until Friday, when it will begin to weaken.
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.
Conditions on Saturday were similar to those expected later this week, with a warm air mass, and a foehn wind coming off the Southern Alps.
MetService was on the same page as Brandolino when it came to the temperatures in Hawke’s Bay, predicting 29C in Hastings on Thursday – after 27C on tomorrow – and highs just 1C lower in Napier.
But MetService was not expecting similar highs for the South Island, with Christchurch forecast to hit 25C tomorrow and 24C expected for Timaru and Blenheim.
Brandolino expected the South Island to cool down more by the end of the week, than does the North Island.
‘‘The air will turn cooler behind this warm surge for late in the week, but for the North Island the warmth does hold on – maybe not flirting with 30, but it will be above average for the rest of the week,’’ he said.
‘‘As the South Island goes through a bit of a changeable pattern, a bit of chilly or cooler than normal air mass moves over after this warm spell.’’