An icy vehicle in Greerton Monday morning. Photo / Matthew Wooten
An icy vehicle in Greerton Monday morning. Photo / Matthew Wooten
Frozen windscreens, icy grounds and an urge to stay warm in bed was what many Tauranga residents would have woken to this morning as "the coldest night of the year" snapped the city.
Metservice meteorologist Kyle Lee said along with many other parts of New Zealand, Tauranga experienced it's "coldestnight of the year" Sunday night.
Lee said it came as a result of a southerly sweeping the country and clear skies overnight Sunday allowing temperatures to plummet.
The temperature dropped to 4.5 degrees overnight and remained until 8am this morning, which Lee said was "very low" for Tauranga.
It was common for cloud cover to act as "insulation", however, the lack of caused frost to pay many a visit Monday morning.
He said so far, the minimum temperature for June was sitting at 6.6 degrees.
The month of May was moderately warm for the time of year, however, there was a decent amount of rain and the odd cold snap.
The minimum temperature for May dropped down to 4.8 degrees overnight on May 18 and the maximum temperature recorded was just about a week earlier hitting 20.8 degrees on May 12.
An icy vehicle in Greerton Monday morning. Photo / Matthew Wooten
Looking ahead, the first half of June is expected to be quite wet, he said. With some low pressure and wet bands coming to the country for the first two weeks.
However, on the bright side, temperatures are expected to climb back up to the average in this period, he said.
The average June temperatures for Tauranga being a max of 15 degrees and a minimum of 6.6 degrees.
However, just as it will level out, another southerly is projected to hit the country in the third week of June, which will see temperatures plummet again.
For the rest of this week temperatures will creep back into the mid to late teens and overnight temperatures will remain stagnant in the 6 to 9 degree range.
Heavy rain is expected around midweek, which will bring showers up until the weekend.
FORECAST:
Tomorrow - Cloudy, with a chance of showers in the afternoon. High of 16 and a low of 9.
Wednesday - Rain, possibly heavy, turning to showers late afternoon. High of 18, low of 7.
Thursday - Showers on and off throughout the day. High of 15, low of 8.
Friday - Showers gradually clearing. High of 15, low of 6.
