Northland's endless summer could evolve into a wonderful winter, with weather watchers predicting the next three months will be warmer than normal.
Northland's autumn has been unusually warm, with temperatures above 20C, and the relatively fine weather is expected to continue for the next three months, Niwa forecaster Chris Brandolino said.
"You have had some really great weather up there for the time of year and we are predicting there will be a 45 per cent chance of temperatures being above average for Northland over winter," Mr Brandolino said.
"The average temperature for Whangarei for the three months of winter is 12.3C so when we say 'above average', that means we predict the average temperature will be at least 0.5C higher. Those are pretty good odds that it will be a warmer winter than normal in Northland."
He said a confluence of two events to the east of Northland was behind the fine predictions.