Christmas in Hawke's Bay may be sunny after all.
The outlook for Thursday?
Your guess is [as] good as mine.
Last week, when MetService predicted precipitation on the 25th, we parents wept a little.
The notion of keeping the lid on the barbecue, swapping the chardonnay for syrah and cutting kindling was a tad bleak.
It's not a bad scenario if you're having a mature persons' day.
The indoors don't preclude serious fun. But when Christmas entails a truckload of kids fuelled by a bottomless box of scorched almonds and fizz, then rain is a sure-to-rise recipe for the worst bout of cabin fever since the last rainy Christmas. Presents like water guns, trampolines, cricket bats, cricket balls, bikes and swingball have never gained a foothold indoors.
Fear not.
Such is the chaotic nature of the atmosphere, we learned yesterday that the original outlook for Thursday has been reversed.
Forecasting 'twas ever thus. The vagaries of the dark art of weather foretelling will remain mystical and marvellous, fittingly, like Christmas.
As of last night, MetService's weather sages announced fine conditions for this region on the 25th. In fact, we may be one of the few hot spots in the country. Auckland and Wellington are poised for rain and cloud.
If it weren't the season for giving, I'd be feeling smug.
And let's not forget on this dry eastern coast that "good" weather is all too relative. Our men and women of the land won't mind an inclement Christmas in the slightest.
Speaking of the Outlook for Thursday, this year marks the DD Smash song's 31st birthday. Hard to believe. So forget the skies.
I'm more minded to fret about the Moon and how many times its rise and fall has passed unnoticed in those 31 years.
'Money is more important to them than women.'