Blame tropical cyclone Edna for the drizzly, damp and dark weekend that forced Bay residents indoors - and the summer's El Nino weather pattern is set to bring future storm tails our way.
MetService meteorologist Liz Walsh said it was not a great weekend for most of the east coast of the North Island, thanks to Edna.
"It was only a cyclone for about six hours, but slowly headed and hovered to the east of New Zealand ... It's still just churning away and bringing waves of rain into Hawke's Bay and Gisborne."
She said tomorrow was slowly starting to look more promising with gradual cloud and occasional rain, while the fresh southwesterlies die away.
"Tomorrow it starts to clear out, there will still be some continued rain in the ranges but finally the sun starts to poke its head through."
She said Wednesday and Thursday are the best days of the week, with light winds and temperatures in the mid 20s.
She blamed the poor summer weather on the El Nino climate patterns, defined by the surface pressure of the water between Peru and Tahiti.
"Typically during an El Nino situation all the tropical cyclones make a beeline for New Zealand and they tend to flick off to the east of the country.
"We haven't seen any really strong tropical cyclones yet this season, but they will bring a lot of moisture, rain and cloud."
She said typically February is the hottest month of the year for New Zealand and was hopeful it was just taking a little while to warm up.