Sunny Mother’s Day pegged for Hawke’s Bay even with winter chill

A chill in Hawke's Bay brought snow to the Kaweka Ranges on Thursday morning. Photo / Warren Buckland

A sudden drop from the above-average temperatures Hawke’s Bay has enjoyed for the past week will leave people feeling the chill more than usual.

Snow was visible along the Kaweka Range on a very bracing Thursday morning in Hawke’s Bay.

MetService meteorologist Andrew James said Mother’s Day in Hawke’s Bay will still be sunny as temperatures warm up a bit by the time the weekend hits, although they will still sit slightly below average for this time of year.

“Over the next few days, we see a return to more normal temperatures for this time of year. We get highs over the weekend of 15, 16 and 17 degrees and then down to four or five or six overnight across Hawke’s Bay,” James said.

“It is a degree or two cooler than normal in terms of May, but about normal for this time of year.”

He said the temperature drop would be especially noticeable after the last week had above-average temperatures for this time of year.

“We’ve had a sharp change, so it is going to feel a lot colder,” he said.

“We have seen an influx of cold air replace that tropical air mass that we’ve had, which has brought a few showers around,” James said.

He said the snow seen on the ranges on Thursday was not likely to stay around for long and Friday, Saturday and Sunday all looked like fine days.

In Napier, he said there would be a high temperature of 16C on Friday, 17C on Saturday and 18C on Sunday.

In Hastings, he said there would be a high temperature of 15C on Friday and 17C on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday night lows for Napier are expected to be 6C.

The Friday night low for Hastings was expected to be 5C and around 4C or 5C on Saturday and Sunday.