It’s a bleak, cold and wet day in Auckland, Hamilton and surrounding regions today as the low responsible for the Nelson floods finally crosses the North Island.

The low crossed the Auckland region today and is shifting a cold south easterly wind over the city.

WeatherWatch.co.nz this morning lowered their predicted high for the city to 16 degrees but as of 2:30pm, traditionally around the warmest part of the day, the city was on just 14 degrees, where it’s been since late morning. 

In Hamilton it’s just 13 degrees this hour.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says these temperatures are incredibly low and are several degrees below the December average.

Yesterday some parts of central Hawkes Bay failed to climb above 11 degrees.

But the colder weather is mostly localised due to thick cloud cover, persistent rain and a cool south easterly wind around the centre of the low.  Under these conditions WeatherWatch.co.nz doesn’t expect temperatures to improve much today, but unlike the middle of winter, they aren’t expected to drop much tonight.

The cold snap will also be short lived – warmer weather will return tomorrow and Tuesday with even warmer conditions moving in as the week goes on.

Some models suggest the country may be fairly dry and warm for the rest of December.

– Homepage image / www.MandenoMoments.com

– WeatherWatch.co.nz