Fine days return after near-record cold snap

The heavy rain didn't stop competitors in Saturday's 100km Flyer race from Taupo to Rotorua. Photo / Stephen Parker

After last week's cold snap, Rotorua residents were swapping their jerseys for raincoats as more than 30mm of rain fell on Saturday.

Heavy rain across the North Island caused power outages, flooding and treacherous driving conditions.

After a week of little or no rain, 33.8mm fell at Rotorua Airport on Saturday, with the highest rainfall between 8am and 1pm.

The good news is, apart from a few showers today, it's forecast to be a mainly fine week.

And locals who got a shock when last week's chilly conditions rolled in to Rotorua will be pleased to hear warmer weather is also on its way.

Last week Rotorua had near-record temperature lows for the month, with last Wednesday dropping to a chilly -1C overnight.

MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said the polar blast, caused by a deep trough of low pressure that brought up a cold air mass from Antarctica, seemed to be at an end, with temperatures projected to rise over the coming week.

He said Rotorua temperatures would "recover considerably this week".

"Last week Rotorua had highs between 13C and 17C and lows of around 1C and 2C. This week it is forecast to be considerably warmer and we will see Rotorua recover along with the rest of the country."

He said while last week's temperatures didn't set records for the month "they were not far off".

"The record low for April is -2.1C and that was in 1992, so while last week's temperatures were not the coldest we've seen, they certainly got pretty close.

"This cold snap appears to be a bit of a blip and will probably not skew the month's mean temperatures."

He said Rotorua residents should expect highs of 19C and lows of around 9C this week.