Too early to tell if it has been a record start to December: Metservice

Luke Moore, 5, and Jade Moore, 7, cooling off in the Waipawa River in March. Photo / Paul Taylor

If you think it's been a hot start to summer, you'd be right.

Although it is too early to tell if the first days of December have set records, we should expect hot weather to continue for the rest of the week, Metservice says.

Four days into summer, the country has experienced some belters, causing issues for many.

In Napier, locals are being urged to conserve water after water levels became "critically low over the weekend."

Napier City Council posted on social media earlier today that after a warm weekend, their reservoirs had dropped to critically low levels.

A level four restriction - or total watering ban - has been put in place which bans outdoor water use (including hoses, and sprinklers) for the next few days.

Napier's highs for the weekend were 24C and 26C respectively. A high of 27C is expected tomorrow.

Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll explained the extreme weather could be attributed to large high pressure systems around New Zealand.

"They've been dominating areas of high pressure, and have been rebuilding persistent areas of high pressure to the east, west and especially to the south of New Zealand," Noll said.

When asked whether a drought could be expected for New Zealand, he said it was too early to tell.

"We are not seeing a meteorological drought yet, but it's turning very dry in parts of the country."

Today's weather saw plenty of high numbers just after lunch, with Alexandra reaching 31C, Masterton 30C and Christchurch 29C.

At 4pm, Wellington was the coolest place in the country, registering 19.6C.​

Auckland reached a modest high of 26C today, with a high of 16C expected overnight.

And if you're thinking of a swim at one of Auckland's beaches after work, you can expect a sea temperature of about 19.5C.

Yesterday, the Canterbury area of Cooptown reached the national high of 28.6C, with Masterton Airport recording the coldest temperature - falling to 6.9C overnight