Weather ‘uncertain’ for Hawke’s Bay’s big Easter weekend; MetService to update through the week

A cold southerly brought a dusting of snow to the Ruahine Ranges southwest of Hastings last week. Photo/Warren Buckland.

Possible rain and showers may hit Hawke’s Bay this Easter weekend, but MetService says a better picture of the forecast will become clearer in the next few days.

Many Rod Stewart concertgoers and eager holidaymakers will be hoping they won’t be left in “Cold Water”, with thousands expected to make their way to Mission Estate and other Hawke’s Bay hotspots for one of the Bay’s biggest weekends of the year.

As of Monday morning, MetService’s Hawke’s Bay forecast stated that Friday would be “mostly cloudy, with isolated showers becoming widespread”.

Saturday would bring “occasional rain and southeasterlies”, whereas Sunday and Monday would be “partly cloudy with northeasterlies”.

However, MetService meteorologist Andrew James said that there were a few different things that could happen between the start of the week and Friday, which is when he said things start to become a little uncertain.

“There’s a system to the north of New Zealand, something in the Tasman Sea as well as a ridge over the country, and the interaction of those three systems produces quite a wide range of possibilities for the weekend ahead.”

He said his message for people would be to enjoy the good weather now and keep checking in on the forecast as the week continues when things start to become clearer.

“It’s looking like a really settled lead-up to the Easter weekend,” he said.

“As we get closer to the time we will refine [the forecast], it may be that be that the weather jumps around a little bit between now and then.”

Tuesday is set to bring “areas of cloud, with a few showers in Wairoa District, clearing and becoming fine during the morning”, and Wednesday looks to be fine across the region.

Temperatures also don’t look to be as cold as last week, when the first snowfall of the year for Hawke’s Bay dusted the Kaweka and Ruahine ranges.

Last week, MetService reported temperatures of around 7C in main centres Napier and Hastings during the early morning.

This weekend’s temperatures in Napier and Hastings look to not drop below 9C. Napier could possibly expect a 22C high on Monday.

There are currently no weather warnings in place for the region.