Hastings tickles 30C in October

Hawke's Bay can expect the weather to stay hot this weekend. Photo / Paul Taylor

Shorts and jandals were seen in great numbers across Hastings on Friday as the thermometers tickled just under 30C.

Meanwhile Napier was also comfortably warm, basking in temperatures of 27.5C

MetService meteorologist Katie Hillyer said the temperature wasn’t expected to rise any higher on Friday, but the reason the region was enjoying such warm temperatures for October is because of the Foehn effect.

The Foehn effect is a weather phenomenon where moist air rising over a mountain cools, loses moisture through precipitation, and then descends on the other side as warm, dry air.

“It is very hot for October,” Hillyer said.

“Long story short, the warming is created by those northwesterly winds hitting the region, and that is expected to continue for the next couple of days.”

While the winds picked up on Friday afternoon for Hawke’s Bay and going into Saturday, the temperatures will remain hot with highs of 27C forecast for Hastings, while Napier is expected to hit 26C.

The northwesterly winds are expected to be strong through Saturday but will ease on Sunday morning.

Then on Sunday, temperatures are expected to stay hot with a high of 26C for Hastings and 25C for Napier.

“And that will continue until Tuesday,” Hillyer said.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.