Rain presents no hurdle

Despite the heat, troupe leader Lisa Le Fae, Maree Patton, Jewel Gray and Jan Hartshorn from Bellishus Performance Troupe rehearse their fan veil routine in the Marine Parade Gardens, in preparation for the MEDANZ Festival in Wellington. Photo / Duncan Brown

Whether the week brings rain or shine, Farmlands Horse of the Year events manager Dave Mee will take it in his stride.

After yesterday's high of 32C for the first Horse of the Year event, the rest of the week was forecast to be much cooler.

Mr Mee said: "For everyone, cooler weather is absolutely fine."

Although scattered rain and light showers were forecasted for the week, Mr Mee said this would be "no problem".

"A little bit of rain would be advantageous as it would soften the grass."

He said the cancellation of events was "highly unlikely". "Those decisions will be made on the day, they might be postponed a couple of hours but it's highly unlikely they will be cancelled."

MetService meteorologist Angus Hines said, starting this afternoon, there would be some cloud and a few showers which would clear up on Wednesday.

Following the warm and humid weather over the North Island, today was expected to have some scattered rain with northwesterlies. Showers were expected to develop this afternoon with a southerly change.

Tomorrow, the southerly, heading up the east coast, would clear most of the rain and knock temperatures down, with a high of 26C. The weather was predicted to be cloudy with showers.

Wednesday was predicted to be one of the "chillier" days of the week, Mr Hines said, with a high of 20C. There would be cloud cover with showers confined to the ranges in the morning, and fine spells developing elsewhere.

From Wednesday, the weather would begin to get warmer as a ridge of high pressure moved over the country.

Mr Hines said, by Thursday, the weather should be becoming fine, with isolated showers about the ranges and a high of 24C. Friday was forecast to have fine spells, with light winds and afternoon sea breezes, reaching a high of 27C.