Taste of summer again this weekend
Temperatures are expected to hit 30 degrees in Blenheim next weekend as the country looks set to get an early dose of summer weather.
MetService meteorologist Stephen Glassey says most parts of New Zealand have had some fine weather over the long Labour Day weekend, and the good days — briefly interrupted — will return by the end of this week.
Unfortunately, there will be some unsettled weather in between.
Temperatures will be around normal for this time of year in the first part of the week but will rise well above normal at the weekend, reaching 28C in Masterton and 30C in Blenheim next Sunday.
“The air [will be] coming off Australia, they have this really large high over the Tasman, and the northerly flow on the western side of the high is dragging this warm air off Australia,” Glassey said.
In Auckland, a few showers last night followed an otherwise dry long weekend.
Winds will change to southwesterlies today, causing a slight drop in maximum temperatures to 17C with showers from today until Thursday.
Fine weather is expected at the weekend with a maximum temperature of 20C, similar to Auckland’s Labour Weekend experience.
In Wellington and most of the South Island, a cold front moving in tomorrow will bring a few days of showers and colder temperatures, with maximums of 15C in Wellington and 16C in Christchurch on Thursday. Good weather returns at the weekend, Christchurch getting 27C on Sunday.
However Glassey said there was still some more blustering spring weather to come before summer sets in properly.
“There may be cooler weather coming later in November. We are hinting at a colder anomaly in mid-November,” he said.
“We might get warm weather next weekend, but it’s not necessarily going to stick around for the rest of spring.”