Not surprisingly, the winterless north featured again as the nations warmest spot with Kataia nabbing the gold on16 degrees. Also on the podium today was Russell, Whangarei and Kaikoura taking the silver on 15 while Auckland,Gisborne, Hastings and Kapiti shared the bronze, on 14 degrees.

The coolest North Island centres were Rotorua and Taupo, finally managing to claw their way up to 10 degrees whereas in the south, both Milford Sound and Lake Rotoiti shivered with just 4 degrees, Manapouri only mustered 5 and Gore, Invercargill and Murchison had a very cool Thursday with only 7 degrees.

13’s and 14’s were commonplace for the main centres but Dunedin felt the late winter chill with just 10 degrees.

Now Kaitaia looks likely to have the mildest temperature in the land tonight with the mercury remaining in double figures, while the rest of the country looks likely to have single figure lows and the coolest centres appear to be Wanaka and Alexandra, as they should just sneak under the freezing mark and the chance of a shower or two.

Tomorrow a southerly starts to move onto the bottom of the mainland and temperatures will be certainly wintry however even though conditions may be wet in some parts to the west and north of Aotearoa, the temperatures should be near enough to average with Gisborne the shining light, expecting a nor’ west 16 degrees.  

Weather analyst Richard Green keeps an eye on the skies with all the weather statistics each afternoon.