The Ruahine ranges blanketed in snow on a chilly Sunday morning. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hawke’s Bay will get a brief reprieve from the chill before temperatures dip down again mid-week.
Snow was visible on the Ruahine ranges on the brisk, but sunny, Sunday morning.
MetService meteorologist David Miller said Sunday morning was the coldest part of the weekend as Hastings hit negative -0.5C on Sunday morning while Napier was -0.3C.
Wairoa was 1.3C on Sunday morning, which Miller said was still cold enough to have a frost on the ground.
He said overnight lows of 5 and 6C were expected for overnight Monday into Tuesday in Hastings and Napier respectively and 7 or 8C for both overnight Tuesday.
He said temperature highs will reach about 15 to 16C during the day in Hawke’s Bay on Monday.
“On Tuesday with those warmer north westerlies, [temperatures will reach] 19 and 20 [degrees Celsius] for Hastings and Napier,” Miller said.
He said the chill was caused by clear skies and minimal wind at night.
“Usually you get the kind of cloud cover that acts like a blanket and just keeps the temperatures dropping away overnight. The opposite is true when there is no cloud cover.”
He said winds could cool things down again midweek.
“I think it is going to be quite breezy later Tuesday and especially into Wednesday as a front comes up the country,” Miller said.
“Wednesday, Thursday, Friday onwards the temperatures look to start dropping again, the overnight lows start dropping off.”
There have been 127 crashes on Main North Rd since 2015, with five fatalities.