Weather: Canterbury hits 33C with muggy nights set to stay in Auckland, Christmas Day to get showers

After temperatures surpassed 30C in parts of the country by midday today, MetService says every day until Christmas will be gripped by warm, humid conditions for many – particularly for Auckland.

Daily highs in the City of Sails are set to remain about 26C until the end of the year and with lows remaining just around 20C, sleepless hot and sticky nights will linger past Christmas.

With five sleeps still to go until Christmas Day, MetService was forecasting it would be a showery day in the Super City with a high of 26C.

Elsewhere, conditions on Monday were forecast to be mainly cloudy with intermittent showers.

Wednesday’s hottest temperatures see Canterbury hit 33C

It would come after a recent run of sweltering days, with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) saying the hottest temperature in New Zealand on Wednesday was reached in North Canterbury.

Niwa said Hamner Forest reached 33.7C, Waiau hit 33.6C, while Alexandra rose to 32.6C, Clyde reached 32.2C and Medbury sat on 31.8C.

MetService said it remained cooler closer to the coast, with Milford Sound remaining the laggard, only hitting 14C.

The cause of the sticky weather is an area of warm, humid air being dragged across New Zealand from the warm waters to our north.

MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said, “This humidity looks to linger around our shores in the lead-up to Christmas so it will likely be worth getting the fans out and knowing that the heat may be playing a part in your sweaty end-of-year stress.

“Even though the temperature looks to drop off overnight, we’re approaching the summer solstice, so the nights are very short which reduces the body’s ability to recover from the heat – something to be wary of as we head through this week as we may issue heat alerts in the coming days,” he said.

In the remaining days until Christmas, meanwhile, MetService forecasted partly cloudy conditions for Thursday morning with pockets of fog before clearing from midday in Auckland.

Friday and Saturday would be cloudy with a chance of the odd shower, with north-easterly winds becoming “fresh” throughout Saturday afternoon.

Holiday hotspot forecasts

In Aucklanders’ usual holiday hotspots, conditions remain much the same as elsewhere.

The Bay of Plenty and Gisborne will be the crop of the bunch on Thursday with MetService forecasting fine conditions with a slight sea breeze by the coast.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.