Spate of frosts set to continue across increasingly dry Hawke's Bay

Federated farmers president Jim Galloway said while some farms were coping well, others were still quite dry. Photo / Warren Buckland.

Rug up warm because the frosty mornings aren't going anywhere just yet.

Hawke's Bay has had more frosts than usual for May, with Federated Farmers president Jim Galloway recording about five in his farm diary so far.

"I think I recorded just one last year," he said.

"I'm pretty sure we had more than that, but certainly not as many as we're experiencing this year."

Niwa has predicted a fairly dry winter right up until the end of July, with average to below average rainfall.

Galloway said some farms were coping well, but for others the grass wasn't so green.

"There seems to be a good patch which starts around Waimarama and stretches down through Hawke's Bay, then goes right out under the hills and comes out north of Napier.

"But anything around Kereru or areas just out from the ranges still looks quite dry.

"The Heretaunga plains are still quite dry at the moment. The hills are really struggling to get much regrowth on them as well."

Galloway said if the dry weather continued it was going to be a "pretty lean winter".

"There won't be much feed growing so it's going to be pretty tough. Some of the lamb finishers have not been buying as many as usual because they don't have the feed for them.

"If the lambs aren't coming into the Hawke's Bay area, that means they won't be going into the local freezing works, which means there might not be as many jobs as usual."

MetService meteorologist Gerrit Keyser said the frosty mornings were set to continue into the weekend, with morning temperatures sitting at a chilly 2C in some areas.

"It's because of these cool, calm and cloudless conditions that Hawke's Bay is getting morning after morning, so the frosty conditions continue until something like cloud arrives to stir everything up."

Keyser said a dry north-westerly wind would (hopefully) halt the frosts on Saturday.

"Frost conditions range from 0-4C, so we're looking at 2C in places like Central Hawke's Bay, but places like Napier miss out as they hit the 5C mark as it's closer to the sea and temperatures vary."

Keyser said although dry weather was predicted, meteorologists were expecting rain within the next week.