A word of warning – don’t put away the winter woollies just yet with unusually frosty conditions forecast for Waikato this week.
Temperatures are predicted to dip into the negatives by Friday, with cold air spreading right across the country, pushing up from the Southern Ocean, MetService meteorologist John Law said.
“Hamilton could see temperatures down below freezing as we head through Thursday night to the early hours of Friday morning.
“Lows of about minus 2 degrees in the city, while Tokoroa could drop to -3. And it’s not just nighttimes which will be cold. There will be a couple of cold days as well, 12 and 11 degrees for the top temperatures, very different from what was seen over the weekend.”
READ MORE:
* Spring is on pause, cold air from ‘belly of the polar region’ on the way
* Rain and thunderstorms for the north, ‘polar outbreak’ set to hit the south
* Heavy rain for North Island as cold snap brings frosty temperatures to the South
* Rain warnings for parts of North Island, slips and flooding possible
Law said it’s unusual to have frost this late in the year, but it’s not out of the question with records showing that Hamilton got as low as 1.8C in October in 1976 in Hamilton.
He hopes that temperatures will pick up and the wet weather which saw Hamilton get 58mm of rain in the first three days of October will ease.
“We’ve had wet but warm over the weekend, as we head towards the end of the week we are cold but dry. High pressure builds back from across the Tasman Sea, it pushes that wet weather system away towards the east, so we should find the weather settles down.
“The downside of that is a couple of clear cold nights, but there should be some sunshine during the day, so it’s worth keeping those extra layers.”
Waka Kotahi/Supplied
A large slip has closed SH25 between SH25A and McBeth Rd south of Hikuai on Monday.
The average rainfall for October is usually 105mm, of which the region has already seen over half of that in the first three days.
That is on the back of September which had 152mm of rain in Hamilton and the average is normally 115mm.
“So there were a couple of really wet days in September, on the 5th there was 40mm rain which is a huge amount of rain to come through.”
Law said the wet weather is being pushed away to the east and there will still be showers across Waikato on Monday.
“We should find over the next few days the wind turns southerly which is not a bad direction for the Waikato. It should be more sheltering so should be a lot drier towards the end of the week.”
The colder weather comes with a warning: if there’s extra moisture around there could be icy patches and with temperatures dipping below freezing. And also watch the crops in the gardens for a bit of frost as well.
MetService/SUPPLIED
MetService forecast for Hamilton this week starting October 3
Meanwhile, the heavy rain has caused slips and surface flooding around the Waikato region with Waka Kotahi issuing a warning that driving conditions could be hazardous.
State Highway 25, Tairua Rd, Hikuai between SH25A and McBeth Rd was closed due to a large slip, which contractors were clearing.
A geotech engineer was there to check the slip face during clean up works. Detours were in place.
There was traffic management in place on SH25 2km north of Waikawau on the Thames Coast to finish the cleanup of a small slip.
