It’s the middle of the day, you’re outside, maybe walking to get lunch…maybe outside on the farm…or maybe just out and about doing errands.  It’s hot, there’s no wind, and when you read the Daily Debrief at 4:30pm you learn it was only 20 degrees.

Yesterday someone came in to the office in the early afternoon.  “Phil, what’s the temperature out there – it’s stifling”.  My answer: “19 degrees”.  Response:  “Really?”.

We’re at that funny time of the year where things don’t seem to line up properly in our minds. 

We forget that the sun is still packing a punch – and that the ground is dry and heats up nicely.  But the air is cooling. 

The other day at my home office the sun was pouring in and despite the windows being open I couldn’t cool down.  The temperature inside was 27 degrees – outside it was 21. 

The air is noticeably cooler now – two shots from the south have helped that along nicely.  We’ve had almost non-stop winds from the southerly quarter lately and a big dry anticyclone over us means nothing will change for the next few days.

So are our highs accurate?  Yep – remember we take temperatures in the shade.  With low humidity the shade is quite cool right now…but out in sun, under those cloudless skies, the sun packs a punch still.

I personally prefer it to November…in November it often looks like it should be hot but the winds are still cold from the winter air.

We have 3 mostly sunny, mostly hot, days ahead of us – with cool nights.  This week couldn’t be more Autumnal if it tried!

Philip Duncan – WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst