Spring has chilly kick in its tail

It may have been just a fortnight before the start of summer but for Hawke's Bay the middle of November came close to creating a couple of records - for cold weather not hot.

The month was also chillier than usual, as Niwa's latest climate summary for the last month of spring shows, with temperatures across the Bay and other eastern regions of both islands being 1.2C below the November average.

On November 13, a bitter cold and wet front was dragged across the northeast of the North Island and it set the thermometers plunging.

On that day, the extreme maximum temperature recorded in Napier was just 11.4C. In Hastings it was 11.5C - both were equal second lowest on record for a November.

But Waipawa set the regional lowest figure on that day at a midwinter-like 10C - the equal lowest November temperature since 1945.

Wairoa's figure of 11.6C was the third lowest since 1972.

With the cold front dragging heavy rain across Northern Hawke's Bay, Wairoa made the national top three for maximum one-day rainfall.

That was on November 12, when 85mm fell - the third highest total since 1967.

While relatively dry during the start and end of the month, November was colder than usual for the Bay.

The culprits, Niwa climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said, were higher than usual pressures over the central and southern Tasman Sea and lower than normal pressures east of the Chatham Islands.

That created more frequent southerly winds than normal.

Apart from the mid-month downpours which swept through, the month was actually classed as dry for the Bay, with soil moisture levels down across the North Island, except for Northern Hawke's Bay and Gisborne.