It doesn’t really come as a surprise but dry and warm weather has taken hold of the country this month with some alarmingly low rainfall figures so far.

NIWA figures show how little has fallen in many areas. In the far north, Kaitaia has had 4 millimetres out of a normal 89mm for the month, Auckland 6mm compared 61mm, Tauranga 4mm compared to 78mm, and Hamilton 11mm instead of 82mm.

In contrast Christchurch, which has had many long, scorching hot days, has received near-normal January rainfall of 37mm, Dunedin is not much below normal with 67mm, and recently balmy Wellington is nearly 20 per cent above normal with 88mm.

At Mt Cook a whopping 1018mm fell in January, compared to 423mm normally.

However, despite the near-normal rainfall, Christchurch and Dunedin appear on course to record quite a bit more sunshine than usual for January.

Two days ago, Christchurch was already above the normal 238 hours of sunshine for the whole of January, with 249 hours.

Just to the north, Rangiora had clocked up 269 hours, compared to the usual 200, while Dunedin had 192 hours – above the normal 180 hours.

In contrast, Auckland and Wellington still had to catch the monthly average, with Auckland at 207 of the normal 233 hours, and Wellington at 209 of the usual 247.

Standouts for mean temperatures included Napier, which was 0.9C above average at 19.7C, and Turangi, which was 1.5C below average at 13.2C.

This week Central Otago are in line for a run of days with temperatures reaching at least 30C as a spell of settled, sunny weather continues over the country.

Data shows runs of five days with 30C temperatures are not that unusual in Central Otago.

In Alexandra, there have been eight sequences in data going back to 1930 where the temperature reached 30C on at least five days in a row. That included two seven-day sequences, in January 1956, and January and February 2005.

Christchurch is also expected to possibly climb into the low to mid thirties tomorrow and the heat is expected to last into Friday as well.

Homepage image of a dry Merita beach, Kaitaia in the far north where very little rain has fallen this month.

WeatherWatch.co.nz & NIWA