Many across the county have been tossing and turning at night amid “hot, sticky and humid” conditions — but there is reprieve coming, MetService says.
MetService’s Heather Keats told Breakfast that everyone would be very happy to know that “sleep will return to normal this weekend” with the temperature forecast to drop.
“We’ve got a bit of a shift in the flow over the country. So we’ve had a north nor-west flow that moves today to a south sou-west flow,” she said.
“When you’ve got a northerly flow, it’s an air mass coming down from the tropics, so it’s hot, it’s warm, it’s sticky, it’s humid. And when it switches to a south, or southerly then it’s the complete opposite so yes, there’s a reprieve on the way.”
She said from tonight most of the country could expect temperatures around 17C or under, bringing “much better sleeping conditions”.
“For the South Island today it will be very noticeable. So yesterday the high for Christchurch was 26C, and today they’ll be lucky to hit 18C.”
“Even cooler down the road in Ashburton, with a high of 17C, so slightly cooler this weekend,” she said.
The forecast ahead
MetService said a band of showers would move onto the lower North Island this morning, then move up the island through the day with south-westerlies.
Sunnier skies start to increase in the east of the South Island and the south of the North Island, but not before a period of occasionally heavy showers and possible thunderstorms in Canterbury, north of Ashburton, up to Wairarapa during the afternoon and evening.
“On Saturday a high-pressure system sits out to the west, allowing for fresh south-westerlies to persist over the country,” the forecaster said.
Keats said from Sunday into early next week, the high-pressure brings largely settled weather across the country, with only a few areas seeing showers.
However, a rain band is set to move onto the South Island late Monday into Tuesday, briefly interrupting the settled weather.
She said at this time of year there was also always the risk of thunderstorms.
