Plus:  Widespread Thunderstorms today?

A very hot, humid, night for the North Island last night with a moist nor’west flow becoming more intense over the northern half of New Zealand.

Late last night temperatures were still over 25 degrees in Hawkes Bay with 24 in Whangarei and 22 in Auckland.  Humidity levels in our biggest city were over 90% last night making for a ‘feels like’ temperature close to 30 degrees according to weatherwatch.co.nz.

But while many in the North Island may have had an even worse nights sleep than Thursday a cool change is on the way for the North Island tonight. 

That cool southerly change arrived in the lower South Island yesterday.  Invercargill only made it to 16 while Dunedin, on 26 in the afternoon, dropped to 11 degrees by 6pm.  Parts of Canterbury went from the lower 30s to mid teens by evening as the front moved through.

The south west change will bring rain to much of the North Island and upper South Island today.  Dry parts of the North Island’s east and holiday spots in Coromandel and the Bay of Islands should also receive a period of rain but the Weather Watch Centre doesn’t expect high rain totals there.

Thunderstorms?

New Zealand’s government forecaster, MetService, has issued several Thunderstorm Watches for much of the country today.  Both the South and North islands are possibly in for a rumble as the mixture of cold and hot air occurs amidst unstable weather conditions.

They point to northern New Zealand and eastern parts of the South Island as being the higher risk areas.

Here at the Weather Watch Centre we have some conflicting weather data but we agree that conditions are unstable today, as we pointed out in our stories yesterday. 

So, will thunderstorms affect you today?  Keep track of the latest lightning strikes with our fantastic Lightning Detector link – click here!

We’ll update again later this morning tracking the movement of the front and all the current temperatures.

Did you sleep better or worse last night?   Post a comment below!