Weather Watch: A weird sort of winter

Sunny winter's day on the Desert road. Photo / Sarah Ivey

You're more than welcome for the spectacular weekend we had right across the country... I know I sound cocky but considering I get blamed for all the severe weather surely I can also take credit when the weather is fine too?  It was a stunning weekend right across New Zealand thanks to a ridge of high pressure but a stream of southerly air meant temperatures were well down on last week and frosts made a big comeback right across the country, reaching as far north as Auckland yesterday morning.
 
I have to admit this winter has been a little weird - and I'm speaking from an Auckland perspective, although I'm sure a few other regions are in the same boat.  Winter started so quickly this year and June was unbelievably cold... a very sunny, frosty, cold, month.  July then became changeable with lows moving down from the sub-tropics and from the Tasman Sea giving the whole country regular strong winds for the first time in a couple of months and temperatures heading towards 20 degrees - for three days last week the high was 19 degrees and that was recorded in both islands.   The change to lows moving in from the north and west meant more rain than June... a lot of rain warnings were issued this month and there's no immediate end in sight of this weather pattern.
 
Over the weekend we saw a change to southerlies and at the hottest time of the day on Sunday most centres from Invercargill right up to Whangarei were between 10 and 12 degrees.    But it was a sunny, calm, weekend for many regions so even though the temperature in the shade wasn't anything to write home about, sitting in the sun certainly was. 
 
I figured it was time I got out and weeded the garden before things start to grow quickly and in the sun, out of the light southerly breeze, it was actually quite hot.  The Daphne in my garden is flowering along with a couple of other plants (I don't know their names) but my grape vine is refusing to confirm anything warm is in the air...it still looks like a mass of dead wood with no buds to be found.  My black taro, completely wiped out by the frosts, was starting to make a comeback but yesterday's icy start has seen an end to that.  I also had two small puka trees that I'd planted...both are dead at the top - because of the frosts.  I'm not a plant expert but I hope they continue growing...otherwise that's one year's growth down the tubes as I may have to replace them.
 
You've probably noticed the extra daylight by now - if you didn't see the story we had in the weekend about this just click here - we've worked out just how much extra sunlight we're all getting from one end of the country to the other.
 
But the settled weather is short lived...well timed for the weekend, but short lived.  By late Tuesday another low will sweep in from the Tasman bringing heavy rain to the West Coast with rain spreading to most western and northern centres by midnight.  On Wednesday rain will ease to showers with a westerly change but that should set up a number of unsettled days ahead.  In fact the roaring 40s will come to life as a strong westerly flow spreads over New Zealand until the weekend with the South Island and lower North Island most exposed.  It should mean a warmer week in the east though.
 
The upcoming weekend looks a little windy but possibly quite dry for most places, if not a little cloudy.    MetService is also watching Wednesday's rain band with moderate confidence of rain warnings for the South Island's West Coast.  So July ends the way it started - unsettled and warmer than June. 
 
It will be interesting to see what August holds.  If current weather patterns stay in place it may well be a wetter, warmer, month in the north and west, a drier, warmer, month for those in the east and a cold, windy, showery month for those in the deep south.  Time will tell.