New Zealand was frosty nationwide on Monday with even the ‘winterless North’ getting a taste of the Antarctic blast with light frosts through inland parts of Northland.

At dawn it was -2C in Auckland and Central Otago was down to -5.

But as WeatherWatch.co.nz forecast last week, the cold change would be significant but also short lived. In fact frosts tonight will retreat further inland as coastal breezes and clouds develop as the high that is over New Zealand today begins to depart to the east.

In fact by the time you wake up on Tuesday it may already be a bit windy through Cook Strait (nor’westers) while the South Island is under increasing cloud on the West Coast (with rain developing) and windier, warmer, westerlies for the east coast. It may be a cold night tonight, but these winds should developing overnight and before dawn for many places.

Some examples of the temperature swings happening at the moment:

• Dunedin has a high of 14 degrees on Tuesday. The high was 5 on Saturday.
• Christchurch has a high of 17 degrees on Tuesday. The high was just 8 on Saturday.
• Hamilton has an overnight low of +11 this Thursday, but it was -3 this morning.
• Napier has a high of 20 degrees this Friday, it was single digits only this past Saturday.

Meanwhile places like Hawke’s Bay, which shivered through a very cold weekend with temperatures in exposed places this past Saturday hovering around 4 or 5 degrees in the middle of the day, will shoot up to the late teens even the low 20s this week as sub-tropical nor’westers kick in. The sub-tropical air flow is more focused on the North Island.

For more details view our 5 day forecast for the week ahead with head forecaster Philip Duncan – click/tap here to view the video.

10:30am Monday observations map of New Zealand – click for Live Version.

Thursday afternoon forecast temperature map shows highs back into the mid to late teens – click to view 10 days of temp maps.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz