It may be autumn, but eastern parts of the country are still experiencing high temperatures. Photo: MetService
Cantabrians who have been sweltering under 30 degree heat on Monday will not need their sunscreen for much longer, with much colder weather expected.
Temperatures in Christchurch, Wellington and Timaru all cracked the 30 degree mark on Monday afternoon, with the latter recording a temperature of 33.4 degrees.
High temperatures were also recorded across the east coast of both islands, with parts of Hawke's Bay also getting to more than 30 degrees.
But MetService lead meteorologist Stephen Glassey told Checkpoint that cooler weather was coming - and soon.
"We've got an active front that is moving on to the county at the moment, and there are strong northwest winds moving ahead of it across the south island, so that's bringing some rain that's quite heavy into western parts of the South Island and also helping those temperatures to get up quite high in the east of both islands."
Metservice speaks on weather extremes across NZ
But as the front passes, it will bring rain and possible thunderstorms, and much cooler temperatures, said Glassey.
"As this front moves northwards, it's followed by a change to much colder southwesterlies, so these temperatures we're seeing in the east of the South Island, tomorrow they are going to be down into the teens, so quite a noticeable change."
Glassey said while the temperatures had been high on Monday and would fall sharply on Tuesday, the overall weather pattern was not incredibly unusual for this time of year.
"Autumn can be quite changeable."
The wind flows bringing the high temperatures to the east coast today have also seen heavy rain on the other side of the South Island.
MetService has issued orange heavy rain warnings for Westland and Fiordland, with surface flooding, slips and difficult driving conditions possible in two places.
Westland is forecast to receive up to 200mm of rain about the ranges and up to 100mm near the coast. The orange rain warning is in place until 6am Tuesday, with MetService saying there is a "minimal chance" it would be upgraded to a red warning.
Fiordland is also under an orange rain warning which is in place until 10pm tonight. Rain is expected up to 130mm on top of what has already fallen in the area, with a "minimal chance" of the warning being bumped up to a red warning.
A heavy rain watch has been issued for Southland and Stewart Island until 3am Tuesday and 9pm Monday, respectively. A strong wind watch has been issued for Wellington, parts of Canterbury, Otago, Southland and Stewart Island.
Meanwhile, heatwave warnings have been issued for parts of Australia, with temperatures across New South Wales expected to reach up to 39 degrees, while parts of South Australia hit the mid-40s.
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