Last night was warm for many in the north – and Friday afternoon is another warm one as well above average temperatures continue. As we’ve seen across the recording breaking months of 2016 in New Zealand a large high north of New Zealand is helping fuel the warmer weather – and as that sub-tropical portion of air moves east of the country today the windy nor’westers are pushing air from Australia and the Tasman over the nation – and these winds are warming up as they cross land.

This somewhat complicated set up is making for a warm Friday – much warmer than average for this time of the year.

We have a string of temperatures in the late teens and early 20s across Auckland, Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty – but it’s Hawke’s Bay that’s surging ahead into the low to mid 20s. In fact community weather stations are recording current temperatures in the shade of 22 to 25 degrees in northern Hawke’s Bay.

“If this is what spring will be like then we can expect more record challenging and record breaking warm events” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan. “Highs in the low to mid 20s are more common in windy weather in September or October than August”.

The South Island is considerably cooler today, however, with single digit highs or highs below teens.

Below are the highest temperatures today across the North Island as of 1:30pm.

The first half of 2016 has been the warmest on record for New Zealand. 

– Highest Temps in NZ as of 1:30pm, Wunderground Community Network

– WeatherWatch.co.nz