Christchurch residents wake to colder morning

Radiation fog could be seen in parts of the city on Friday morning. Photo / 123RF

Christchurch residents have awoken to a noticeably colder morning today.

The garden city was sitting at 9C at 7am this morning, with temperatures getting to as low as 7.6C overnight on Thursday.

Radiation fog could be seen in parts of the city on Friday morning, blocking visibility for motorists.

This type of fog usually forms overnight or early morning during the coldest hours of the day and then dissipates after the sun comes up.

Wayne Simmons of the Sumner Surf Lifesaving Club said the temperature at Sumner dropped to about 16C from 19C or 20C on Friday morning.

He said this is probably to do with high levels flowing from the Waimakariri River due to heavy rainfall in the last week.

The cooler weather is not expected to last long with MetService predicting temperatures in the city will reach 21C on Friday and 26C on Saturday.

It follows a gloomy summer so far in Christchurch.

"People would have felt these long stretches of below-average temperatures," a MetService meteorologist said.

The only city that has had fewer sunshine hours than Christchurch so far this year is Invercargill.

Christchurch has had 125.7 hours as of January 19, compared to New Plymouth's 198 hours.