A week of icebergs and high temperatures

An iceberg is spotted near Macquarie Island. Photo / Brett Quinton

It seems like a strange combination ... icebergs around New Zealand and a potential heat wave for those closest to it. But I guess this mix of heat and ice makes sense. After all, to have icebergs floating around the South Island means there must be some sort of rapid heating process going on somewhere.

But the heat wave in Australia right now is almost certainly unrelated to the icebergs that are floating up our way. Everyone's been asking me - Will New Zealand get the heat? The answer is "Yes"...but as to how severe it will get, well that's still debatable.

We have all the right ingredients to make for some scorcher days in the east. Firstly - air that has been pre-baked in Australia (fan baked in fact) by hot air blowing off the desert. Secondly, for those in the east, cloud cover shouldn't be too thick. And thirdly, the wind flow will be nor'west - which is almost always a hot, dry, wind for eastern places. So these three ingredients, combined with the fact that we're close to the longest day of the year (just a month away) and we have the perfect recipe to bake...ourselves.

In the main centres, such as Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch I don't see anything too extreme in the picture. Auckland's likely to have hotter, more humid nights for the next couple of nights. It may make sleeping a little uncomfortable. But I don't really see the temperature rising above 23 during the day. In Wellington strong to gale force winds will kick in, keeping a lid on the temps which will probably only hover in the late teens. Christchurch will likely be the hottest of the main centres on Saturday with pockets of the city potentially climbing in to the mid 20s. It all depends on that wind direction, and even a slight change can create wild temperature differences.

In the South Island today the heat has already started with 22 in Dunedin at 10am and 21 in Timaru. Make the most of it - a cold change is moving up the south tomorrow.

So there we have it - icebergs and high temperatures. Just another week in New Zealand.

Philip Duncan

 

Pictured above: An iceberg is spotted near Macquarie Island. Photo / Brett Quinton