First snow arrives on Hawke's Bay mountains, heralding cold nights ahead

Hawke's Bay will start experiencing cooler nights as winter edges nearer. Photo / Paul Taylor

Winter has arrived in Hawke's Bay with a dusting of snow appearing on the Ruahine and Kaweka Ranges on a chilly Friday.

Cloud covered the two Hawke's Bay mountain ranges on Friday afternoon, but the morning gave some driving close to it a glimpse of the white stuff.

MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said it was normal for the ranges to see snow at this time of year, and if anything, it had been a very mild autumn, with typical autumnal weather only kicking in during the last week or so.

Over the weekend and early next week, Hawke's Bay could expect to see early morning frosts and fine days.

Those waking up to do the Hawke's Bay marathon on Saturday will be greeted with a chilly 2C, and a expected high during the day of 19C in Napier.

Murray said it would most likely be around 16C as the marathon ended.

She said there would be norwesterly winds, but not as strong as the strong winds at the end of last week.

A view of the Kaweka rangers from the Napier-Taupo Road. Photo / Supplied

Saturday is expected to have a mild overnight temperature of 11-12C, and Sunday is also looking to be mostly fine.

However there may be some cloud with isolated showers on Sunday afternoon.

The wind is also expected to change to a southwesterly before dying out, and the high is expected to be 20C.

It will be cooler overnight however, with an expected low of 6C.

Monday is expected to be fine with a high of 18C, and Tuesday will be slightly cooler at 17C, with some cloud rolling in.

Wednesday is expected to reach 19C and be mainly fine.

The cooler overnight temperatures could mean frosts, Murray said, although unlikely to affect urban areas such as Napier and Hastings.