Napier and Hastings set for 20C highs as spring equinox brings longer days

Hawke’s Bay is in a “classic” spring weather pattern with “pleasant” conditions forecast.

MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said the rest of the week would bring typical spring offerings, aligning with the spring equinox, which occurred today at 6.19am, bringing longer daylight hours.

September 1 is widely accepted as the first day of meteorological spring in New Zealand but, astronomically speaking, it begins when the sun crosses the celestial equator from south to north, and day and night are of nearly equal length across the Earth.

“Generally, for the weather in Hawke’s Bay this week, it looks like the flow remains coming from the west, sometimes northwesterly, maybe a little bit southwesterly at times,” she said.

“With those winds tending more west this week, that means temperatures look to remain either in the high teens or even in the 20s.

“Not a huge amount of rain, but there will be periods of cloudier weather with some scattered rain moving through ... that’s the trend for many parts of the country. It is a bit of a mixed bag for this week.”

High temperatures look to be between 20C and 21C in Napier and Hastings until Sunday, when the high is expected to jump to 23C across the twin cities.

Makgabutlane said overnight temperatures would hover around double digits but will drop slightly coming into Friday, but no cold snaps or frosts were predicted for this week, adding there would “probably not” be any need to light the fire for the week.

Looking into the weekend, Makgabutlane said the weather in Hawke’s Bay would remain similar to the week.

But she did warn there could be a few showers sticking to the ranges, adding that a few may go floating over other parts of the region as well.

“At least the temperatures will be pretty pleasant.”