Hawke's Bay expecting mixed bag of weather approaching Christmas

The sun is out! But it won't last as the weather is set to pack up towards the end of the working week. Photo / Paul Taylor

Trees are decorated, presents are nestled underneath, the BBQ is ready, the pool is clean-but will Hawke's Bay's weather play ball for the festivities?

After weeks of thunderstorms, then bright, sunny Summer days, then heavy hail and cool southerlies, even the weather experts are having trouble predicting what conditions will materialise on Christmas Day.

MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr said while the week is off to a good start, the weather will become a little more "complicated" towards the end of the working week.

Hawke's Bay will see sunshine up until Wednesday before the cloud takes over and once again rain will fall.

"There's going to be some remaining cloud around the coast still, but that should burn off relatively quickly. Tuesday will also be pretty dry and the northwesterlies will start to pick up.

"Wednesday is when a cold front starts making it self up the South Island, it's not particularly dramatic, but it will have a warm wedge of air ahead of it and that's a bit of a rain ring- particularly for western parts of the country."

Head forecaster for Weather Watch Philip Duncan said Wednesday's front was one of two that would be approaching the country during this week.

"Last week's theme was downpours and thunderstorms, this week's theme is more spring-like, we've got temperature fluctuations, it's hotter than average on Monday and Tuesday but then it cools down a bit on Thursday and Friday - nothing major, but it could be a 10C drop," he says.

"It might drop down to 18-19C on Thursday, but it's not a true big southerly. Because we've had so many weeks and months this year where the weather has been warmer than average, when the temperatures reset to normal we're now calling that cold."

Duncan says the Christmas Day weather could tip either way, as the temperature fluctuations and two large lows made it hard to predict.

"The first low comes mid week, then the second one comes in on Saturday - they'll bring some wind and rain, it may not be major but it's enough to get that feeling that it's not so summery.

"I do have a feeling that it's going to be fairly nice on Christmas Day, it's hard to predict because there's no big high or big low, it's just kind of sitting in the middle right now. It could tip both ways - a bit of a grey area for now."