For many New Zealanders Monday felt more like the middle of spring rather than early January as cooler and cloudier conditions spread across the nation reports WeatherWatch.co.nz.

The weather news authority said temperatures were well below average in many regions mainly in the east and south of both islands, but also some northern parts of the country, such as Auckland and Northland.

Sunniest weather was in the north and west of the South Island and some south western parts of the North Island, while the hottest region was Bay of Plenty, climbing into the mid 20s.

Around 3pm, considered to be one of the hottest times of the day in summer, temperatures were still below the teen mark in some South Island centres.  Parts of Southland, Otago and Canterbury were on just 12 degrees during Monday afternoon, including Invercargill, Gore, Ashburton and Kaikoura.   The bigger centres were only a few degrees warmer.

The North Island wasn’t much better with Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland all between 15 and 19 degrees at the hottest time of the day.  Normally in January highs in those main centres would range from 20 to 30 degrees.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the cooler weather is due to an incoming high.  While the high will bring drier conditions the first few days of this week will see winds from the southerly quarter for many areas, a fairly standard wind flow on the right hand side of an incoming high.

On Tuesday conditions will warm up by a couple of degrees on average across New Zealand with warmer weather slowly creeping back over the next few days.

A few showers are possible, again mostly confined to the upper half of the North Island which has been the pattern for a number of weeks now.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says more summer-like weather will gradually move back across the country with the sunniest and hottest weather expected to return to the South Island first of all, then gradually shift back into the north.

As for when conditions will settle down, WeatherWatch.co.nz predicts no real changes in the current pattern for at least two more weeks, with a sub-tropical low potentially coming in from the north east around January 11th and then another rain system from the north west a few days later.  We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments.

– Homepage image / File, Greg Taylor

– WeatherWatch.co.nz