Find yourself reaching for an extra blanket? Perhaps the heat pump switched back on again? Too cold for shorts? The spring pattern gripping New Zealand continues as we head into December with WeatherWatch.co.nz saying settled weather is finally coming, but it comes with a catch.

Head forecaster Philip Duncan says as of Friday New Zealand will be entering a drier weather pattern with a lot more high pressure coming in, but that it may still feel spring-like at times. “Overnight lows tonight in some sheltered South Island areas will be closer to freezing, with lows of +3 possible” says Mr Duncan. “Then by Friday afternoon these same areas may be closer to 30 degrees”. 

The main catch with the incoming weather is to do with the general air flows. “New Zealand looks to have an uptick in southerly quarter winds over the next week or two, which will mean some coastal areas may be cooler by day than they have been recently. This air flow means rainmakers in the Southern Ocean may just nick southern NZ with a few showers too although even Southland should be seeing a drier trend among the odd showery day”.

The long range trend for the next 7 days is for New Zealand to be drier than normal overall for this time of the year, but many may have to wait until the end of the month or start of January to feel true summer conditions kicking in and settling down.

The meteorological start to summer was on December 1st but the astronomical dates (based around earth’s rotation of the sun) means you can argue summer doesn’t officially kick off until December 22nd…perhaps use that later date to make yourself feel better about the conditions right now if you don’t consider this ideal early summer weather! 

TEMPERATURES – DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL (Blue shows a colder Friday for the North Island, but red and purple over the South Island on Saturday indicates over 8 degrees above normal)

RAINFALL – COMPARED TO NORMAL (Red = drier than average, White = normal, Blue = wetter than usual)

– US Government 

– WeatherWatch.co.nz