There are a few ways at looking for hints that Autumn is approaching.  The longer nights but warm seas at the end of summer means we have cloudier mornings across the country in the month of March.  We tend to have more dew in the mornings and more fog patches.  We also see some leaves changing colour.  But another way to look for Autumn is to look for wild swings in temperatures – and wind directions – in the South Island.

That happens this week as an Autumn-like set up gets underway – hot west to nor’west winds building ahead of a cold change later this week.

Don’t worry – it’s not the start of winter, in fact behind this brief southerly is another big high pressure system which should bring settled warm weather again by this coming weekend.

Thursday looks to be the hottest day this week in the east of the South Island, where temperatures in Otago, Canterbury and Marlborough will surge into the late 20s and maybe hit 30.

But by Friday it’s a much cooler story – with daytime highs tumbling over 10 degrees from Thursday.

THE NORTH ISLAND
A mainly dry, settled, week this week thanks to high pressure.  The Wellington and southern part of Wairarapa may see a few showers develop on Tuesday.  By Friday that same cold front that impacted the South Island moves into the lower North Island – mainly the western side – with a few showers.

If you’re in the North Island and need rain – WeatherWatch.co.nz maintains the forecast we’ve had for over a week now, that the first half of March would be mostly dry but a better chance for sub-tropical air and sub-tropical rain makers would lie in the second half of the month, starting in Week 3 (March 15 onwards). 

– Image – Thursday PM heat map shows the east of both islands pretty hot / WEATHERMAP

– WeatherWatch.co.nz