Clear skies and almost no wind over west Auckland early this morning – the perfect weather for a balloon ride.  Photo / Philip Duncan, WeatherWatch.co.nz

The trend of cool nights and hot days is set to continue for a few more days yet as a large high continues its strong grip over the nation. 

This morning temperatures dropped into single digits across the North Island and near single digits over both islands – making for a chilly start to the day.  At 6am it was just 9 degrees in Hamilton, 8 degrees in Waiouru and only 10 in Palmerston North and Christchurch.

However strong northerlies kept temperatures around the 17/18 degrees mark for Lower Hutt, Wesport, Queenstown and parts of Otago and Southland.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the cool nights are due to colder air that arrived last weekend behind a cold front.  “We haven’t really had any wind to replace that cold air with hotter, more humid, air.  So for the time being mainly clear skies means  cooler nights and hotter days for inland and northern regions of both islands”.

Temperatures today are expected to soar into the late 20s and early 30s for much of the country according to WeatherWatch.co.nz.

Late this morning Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Hutt Valley and Blenheim were already in the mid 20s, while most of Canterbury was already nudging close to 30 degrees, with Timaru the hottest spot on 28 degrees at 11am.

Mr Duncan says many parts of Canterbury will climb into the low, possibly mid, 30s today.