Bay weather looks sunny as children return to school

Lilly Harland-Baker, 8, playing at Spriggs Park as the weather starts to clear. Photo / Duncan Brown

It was a temperamental weekend for Hawke's Bay's weather, with thunderstorms on Friday, hail on Saturday, and sunshine in between.

The weather is meant to calm down, and warm up this week however, just in time for children to head back to school.

MetService meteorologist Claire Flynn says Hawke's Bay's weather, along with the rest of the country, will be dominated by a ridge of high pressure, meaning clear skies and increasing temperatures.

People will be waking up to a chilly 2C in Napier, and slightly colder in Hastings with 1C.

"There's a possibility there could be some frosts around," Flynn said.

However, with a southerly change which came through on Sunday dying out, any lingering cloud should clear, and temperatures will make it to the high teens, which Napier expected to hit 17C and Hastings 18C.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be similar, with highs increasing throughout the week.

By Thursday, Napier will be seeing highs of 21C and Hastings highs of 22C.

Overnight temperatures are also set to increase, with tomorrow the only day with a risk of frost according to Flynn.

Much of the country has severe weather watches on it for the last weekend of school holidays, with snow in parts of the South Island.

However, Flynn said the ridge of high pressure would be dominating the weather for the upcoming week, meaning more spring like weather, and less wintry blasts.

"Most people will find that weather is settling down at the start of the week."

The settling weather came just in time, with the Royal New Zealand show opening in Hastings on Wednesday.

The 10 day forecast looks like the weather is meant to remain warm and fine, which means the four day long weekend should be a good one to get outside.