West to north-west winds will fan dry heat in the east this week, although the further south you go the more spring-like it is with West Coast rain and southern showers and cooler air.

Lows and storms circling Antarctica still have the power of spring and with high pressure zones close to NZ it will fan a westerly ‘squash zone’ over the country this week, bringing summer heat and dry to many – but certainly not all.

Welcome to “Sprummer“!

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The weather set-up THIS WEEK will bring:

• 💨N to NW gales to central NZ (like Wellington)
• 🌡️High temperatures in eastern regions like Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough (Early 30s possible)
• 📊Cooler air for southern New Zealand (Max highs in the mid-teens for some)
• 💧Rain and showers especially for West Coast and Southland
• 🌤️Dry or mostly dry weather for many regions – below normal rainfall expected West Coast
• ☁️Cloudiest/gloomiest in coastal areas of western and southern NZ

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Let’s get into the forecast for Monday to start with…

RAIN:
High pressure is parked just east of Gisborne and brings dry or mostly dry weather to NZ. It’s possible there may be a few isolated showers in the western North Island.

WIND:
With the high being centred just east of East Cape this brings a light easterly to Northland, and a nor-wester around central NZ (the upper South Island and very lower North Island). Light or variable winds elsewhere.

TEMPERATURES:
It’s a mild Monday around NZ with hotter weather coming in the days ahead as those nor-westers pick up again.

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WEEK AHEAD
On Tuesday the high drifts a little further east of NZ over the Pacific Ocean and this brings a stronger, hotter (for some) nor-wester from Gisborne to Dunedin. Gales around the Southern Alps and Wellington and rain returns to Westland with heavy falls and some showers in Southland and western Otago. Dry or mainly dry elsewhere. Cloudy or partly cloudy in the western North Island.

Wednesday is similar with hot weather in Hawke’s Bay and other eastern regions, although not overly hot in the lower South Island or the coastal side of western NZ. Most regions are dry but showers are possible in the west, mostly south of Taranaki and even more so south of Westland and south of Otago.

On Thursday west to sou-west winds cover the nation with a few western and southern showers and cooler air in the south of the South Island and western NZ – but still hot in the eastern North Island

On Friday high pressure moves closer to NZ with a west to south-west flow easing over NZ – but it’s short lived with a windy, unsettled, spring-like weekend possibly on the way.

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The RuralWeather.co.nz ClimateWatch Video Outlook for December will be out later on Monday afternoon.

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As always drill down deeper with your hyper-local, hourly, 10 day forecasts by downloading the FREE WeatherWatch App.