> From the WeatherWatch archives
Those who didn’t make the most of the scorching weekend will be sorry – that’s it for the nice weather. This week will be dominated by muggy days.
Temperatures soared, clouds parted and the rain mostly held back, giving New Zealanders a much-deserved and long-awaited summer’s weekend.
On Saturday the mercury soared, with highs of 29C recorded at Blenheim Airport and 27.8C at Gisborne Airport.
Yesterday was almost as sweltering, with temperatures that reached 27C at Kaikohe and 26C at Tauranga and Whangarei.
Auckland wasn’t left out by the heat and hit a high of 24.4C yesterday, providing excellent weather for those who chose to venture to Devonport for the Food, Wine and Music Festival.
Other Aucklanders took advantage of the weather at the music festival Splore in Tapapakanga Regional Park in Manukau, while some made the most of the pop-up carless park created in lower Queen St yesterday.
But that’s it for sunny days as hot and humid weather moves in.
A low coming from New South Wales in Australia will start to make its way over the South Island today before covering the North Island with heavy rain on Wednesday.
WeatherWatch.co.nz chief analyst Philip Duncan said a large high lay out to the east of the country and a developing low lay to the west, which created a passage for a “very humid” northerly wind down the country.
“So that should help boost the temperatures right up, possibly over 30 degrees in Hawkes Bay,” Mr Duncan said.
And even though most of the country should prepare for rain, particularly the North Island, Mr Duncan said it would be far from cold.
“It looks like it’s going to be a hot, humid and muggy week, even if it is a bit wet.”
Up until the weekend, most of the country would be covered by the slow-moving low, Mr Duncan said.
“I think it will clear up on Friday, maybe with a few showers hanging around, but I think it will clear up then,” he said.
“But possibly another front could move past just after that low leaves.”
– Homepage image / File, Zelda Wynn
By Amelia Wade, NZHerald.co.nz
Comments
Before you add a new comment, take note this story was published on 19 Feb 2012.
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Guest on 20/02/2012 12:20am
Hi there,
Just wondering if you could please provide an updated forecast for Wed 22/2, from 7pm…
Looking to go to the cricket at Eden Park (prob along with 40,000 others), and wondering if we may get any play in?
Cheers 🙂
P.S. Love your work WW
Reply
WW Forecast Team on 20/02/2012 12:58am
Hi there – not looking too flash at this stage. The data hasn’t changed for a few days – showing a 60% chance of rain or heavy showers with the risk of thunderstorms and we expect that to go up to 80% later today. The one thing that we aren’t too sure on yet is when the main rain band will ease…some data suggests Weds afternoon, others suggest it will stall over Auckland for Thursday as well, but in a patchier form.
Check back around 6pm this evening for our next update for Weds onwards – it will likely be the most accurate so far.
Cheers – and thanks for your support!
– WW
Reply
Guest on 19/02/2012 10:28pm
Just to add
Would it be better to have North Island and South Island stories separate as then it might be easier to follow?
just a thought 🙂
One last thing- any chance of new forecasts soon as the current ones are ordinary down south and the temperatures and conditions are way off the mark a lot.
Cheers
Reply
Rob Shackleton on 19/02/2012 11:49pm
In agreement with what is said about the stories.
So many different micro climates over all of NZ and better to split country into two as they’re very different.
Also can’t wait for forecast accuracy. How far away WW? We need you down here more than ever.
Thanks
Rob
Reply
WW Forecast Team on 20/02/2012 1:01am
Hi Rob – thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately that story was provided by the NZ Herald and we don’t have control over how they structure their stories – you’ll find the WeatherWatch ones usually have a more accurate break down of each region, or – as you both suggest above – we break into seperate stories.
Please help us help you by filling out the short survey on our homepage, so that we can start the process of improving the quality of the forecasts you’re currently receiving.
Cheers
WW
Reply
Guest on 19/02/2012 10:15pm
Hi Guys
Like the site but scorching weekend weather? i think there’s some generalising going on here lol
Had the fire on most of the weekend bbbrr
Cheers
Reply
WW Forecast Team on 19/02/2012 11:40pm
Hi there – sorry about that, this story was written by the NZherald and we can’t alter the wording in the story.
Many people in the North Island and east of the South Island mentioned the heat on Saturday but by Sunday it was mostly the North Island that had heat – as a cold change spread up the SI!
Cheers
– WW
Reply
Guest on 20/02/2012 6:47am
Then dont post the story on your website if its not a good one, get poor reporting on the news sites so please not on your one too.
Reply