Most people across the North Island will be in for an even hotter night than last night thanks to a humid northerly flow over the country.

A front from the south is slowly moving up the country and ahead of it warm, humid, conditions are prevailing.

Overnight lows in places like Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga are unlikely to drop below 20 degrees for long as thick cloud cover, drizzle and showers continue throughout the night.

But there is some cooler sleeping weather on the way.  A south west change which already saw quite significant drops in temperatures in the far south should be felt everywhere by late Saturday or early Sunday.

As of 6:30pm it was still around 22/23 degrees in Auckland with humidity between 80 and 90%.  According to the Weather Watch Centre’s humidex, which measures heat and humidity to create a ‘feels like’ temperature, it feels more like 31 degrees as we head towards 7pm. 

The Weather Watch Centre expects conditions to be more difficult for sleeping tonight with higher humidity and still very little in the way of wind.

As of 6:30pm the air temperature was still high on 30 in Napier and Hastings, 28 in Kaikoura, 27 in Whangarei, Whitianga and Wanganui, 26 in Paeroa, Gisborne and Christchurch but just 11 in Dunedin where that cold southerly change has arrived.