{"id":164055,"date":"2025-12-02T09:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164055\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:06:08","slug":"summer-to-start-hot-and-dry-before-late-season-soaking-for-some","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164055\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer to start hot and dry before late-season soaking for some"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EarthEarth Sciences NZ\u2019s principal scientist, Chris Brandolino, told the Herald this summer will have \u201ctwo personalities\u201d. Image \/ Earth Sciences New Zealand<\/p>\n

Drier conditions approaching <\/p>\n

Once the next few days of wild weather move through, we\u2019re likely to see a transition starting as early as the latter part of this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a distinct theme of less than usual [rain] or drier than usual conditions for much of the country, and that does include the upper North Island.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brandolino said the theme will likely be persistent for much of the month and might impact the very start of the new year. <\/p>\n

There will also be a continuation of warmer-than-average temperatures, particularly for the western and upper North Island and the top of the South. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we go past December, the lower South Island, so places like Southland and maybe even parts of Otago … I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be drier than usual for December. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s likely to be more rain down there, and in some parts it could be even a bit wetter than usual,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"ThereThere will be a continuation of warmer-than-average temperatures, particularly for the upper North Island. Photo \/ Alex Burton <\/p>\n

He said there is a concern that in some areas of the country, dryness could develop very quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the main thing to also consider is that some areas last summer had dryness and even drought, and that was the interior and western part of the North Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some areas already have \u201cunusually dry\u201d soils for this time of year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be rain today and tomorrow, but it won\u2019t be enough to turn things around completely. Because those areas are currently dry, they may have kind of a head start to that dubious dryness race,\u201d Brandolino said. <\/p>\n

Rain set to dampen end of summer <\/p>\n

Brandolino said as we move into January, there will be another pivot away from the dry December conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the challenge is trying to identify when we\u2019re going to find this new storyline kind of emerging.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said in the second half of summer, wind patterns are likely to change, which will signal the start of the shift. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re likely to see air flows that are more congruent or more akin to La Nina.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brandolino said when the winds become more regularly from the east to northeast, a change in the rainfall pattern will be noticeable. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlaces like Auckland and Coromandel and Northland and the Bay of Plenty, they\u2019re likely going to see a transition to increased chances of rainfall and potentially heavy rainfall events because our air flows will be changing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brandolino said areas across the western and lower North Island, as well as the western and lower South Island, are unlikely to experience the same change to wetter conditions. <\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Brandolino of Earth Sciences NZ says during January, there will be another pivot away from the dry conditions of December. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

Marine heatwave <\/p>\n

Brandolino said a \u201cmarine heatwave<\/a>\u201d is currently impacting New Zealand\u2019s ocean surface temperatures.<\/p>\n

This is causing warmer air temperatures and more humidity, which has put water vapour in the air. This vapour is fuel for heavy rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing ocean temperatures of 20-21C around our coastal waters. That is very warm. That is exceptionally warm. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is going to have an upward influence on our air temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this would be especially true for the North Island, in places like Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Auckland, Northland and Waikato.<\/p>\n

\"UnusuallyUnusually warm ocean surface temperatures around the North Island are signalling a muggy shift to the start of summer. Image \/ Earth Sciences New Zealand<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earth Sciences NZ\u2019s principal scientist, Chris Brandolino, told the Herald this summer will have \u201ctwo personalities\u201d. Image \/…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3017,95,9218,3021,18089,49062,2082,51584,807,107497,5829,111,43,139,529,69,6926,5258,107498,544,4497,14625,107499,1361,18931,61,25448],"class_list":["post-164055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-ahead","tag-and","tag-before","tag-bring","tag-dramatic","tag-dry","tag-for","tag-hot","tag-kiwis","tag-lateseason","tag-many","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-season","tag-shift","tag-soaking","tag-some","tag-start","tag-summer","tag-sweltering","tag-that","tag-threatens","tag-to","tag-upper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}