A chill has swept over the country this morning bringing a sudden end to those long, hot summer nights.
The blast of cold southerlies has brought heavy rain to the North Island’s east coast and dropped temperatures to unseasonable levels.
MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said the coldest spots were in the central South Island, with Tekapo as low as 0C, while Pukaki and Manapouri dropped to 2C.
The North Island was relatively warmer but many would have been feeling the drop from the sweltering nights of late.
Auckland dropped to a temperate 13C, well below the low 20s experienced over the past couple of months. The city would warm up today to a high of 23C, with fine weather and gusty southeasterlies easing this afternoon.
Similar cool overnight temperatures were forecast across the country for Monday also.
Loots said the rain on the east coast was not “extremely heavy” in the end, but still about 30 to 45mm fell in places over a 12-hour period, providing some good moisture to regions coming out of dry spells.
Apart from some clearing showers and a bit of rain on the east coast this morning the country was in for a mostly fine Monday thanks to a big high pressure system spreading across the country.
The next few days had similar weather in store as the high pressure stuck around, with just a few fronts bringing some rain to parts of the South Island’s West Coast.
The ridge of high pressure would retreat to the east on Wednesday as a cold front moved northeast over the South Island from the south Tasman Sea.
This front, preceded by strong or gale northwesterlies and followed by strong or gale southerlies, was expected to bring a period of rain or showers to most parts of the South Island.
The front should move over the North Island and weaken on Thursday, and another ridge would spread over New Zealand from the Tasman Sea.
The ridge should persist over the country through to the weekend.
