Short sharp cold snap could bring up to 20cm of snow to Napier-Taupō Rd

At least the surf was up, a rider today off Hardinge Rd, Ahuriri. Photo / Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay is bracing for possible snow, just as climate summaries reveal mid-year weather has been some of the warmest on record.

In a range of severe weather warnings throughout the country, national meteorological agency MetService was forecasting 15 to 20 cm of snow to accumulate above altitude 600 metres on State Highway 5 (Napier-Taupō) in the 10 hours from 6pm today, with less amounts at lower levels.

The sudden drop in temperatures feels like a blip after the conditions of the last few months.

New figures show Napier its warmest winter mean temperature (11.4C) in over 150 years of record-keeping, with Mahia also in the record books for its warm winter.

The 24.3C in recorded in Wairoa on August 20 was the hottest in the country through the winter and a record for the town in data dating back to 1964.

The warmer extremes are revealed in winter and August climate summaries issued by climate agency Niwa.

It was the warmest and wettest winter on record in most areas of the country, some of the extremes show by rainfall in both northern and southern Hawke's Bay.

Wairoa had its highest one-day rainfall on August 5, according to the Niwa release, and Dannevirke had its highest three days later - both between 50 and 60mm.

To round-off some of the extremes, the greatest wind gust of the winter nationwide was 198kmh at the Southern Hawke's Bay coastal extremity of Cape Turnagain on July 9.

The timing of this week's cold snap wasn't lost on Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay chairman Jim Galloway, who noted last week there had been a significant storm in the region on September 5 just four years ago.

He wasn't expecting huge impacts across the region, with the inclemency forecast to be short-lived.

But it could be an issue for hill-country farmers if they had started lambing, he said, with one MetService warning saying "cold conditions may cause stress for livestock".

Conditions were forecast to clear on Tuesday, with fine weather apart from isolated showers about the ranges forecast for Wednesday.

In Napier, the temperature shortly before midday was 10.4C, in Hastings it was 9.2C, in Wairoa 9C.

Temperatures weren't immediately available for Waipukurau and Dannevirke , although temperatures in Central and Southern Hawke's Bay weren't expected over 11C on Monday.

But at East Rangitaiki, on the Napier-Taupō Highway and about 85km west of State Highway 2, the forecast conditions were materialising. The temperature just before midday was 5C.