Hawke's Bay temperatures cooling as Australian smoke blows in

Sunset over Ahuriri Estuary on New Years Day. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay has become covered in haze, with the sun ever changing shades of red and orange due to smoke from the devastating Australian bush fires.

A satellite image showing the smoke sitting over New Zealand. Photo / Japanese Meteorological Agency

MetService Meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree said the haze was smoke from the Australian bushfires, blown to New Zealand by a north-west flow.

The smoke was likely to last all of Thursday, Crabtree saying it should clear from Hawke's Bay some time on Friday.

Hawke's Bay residents awoke to a strange sunrise. Photo / Paul Taylor

She said it was significant enough that temperatures may be lower than the high 20s and early 30s MetService has currently forecast for the region.

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