The heat is on

In some parts of New Zealand, today is expected to be the hottest day of summer so far, and tonight is expected to be muggy for many areas. There are some, no doubt, who will be moaning about one or both, but, for me, it’s pretty awesome: I can’t even remember if we had a truly hot day last year.

Parts of the country are expected to get above 30 degrees (86F) or higher today (and possibly hitting 34—93.2F—of the areas of the country). Kirikiriroa Hamilton is expected to hit 28 (82.4F) today, and by 12:30 it was still only 26 (78.8F). I don’t know if it’ll be muggy in my neighbourhood tonight, but I have air conditioning and am fortunate to be able to afford to run it (the latter bit being uncertain for too many people right now).

All of this was reported in the news, but the only reason it registered for me is that I checked the forecast (graphic above) so I could plan things like doing laundry around sunshine (aka”free electricity”). And then I saw the still slightly long term forecast for Christmas Day. Well, it does sometimes rain on Christmas Day, so it’s not like it’s a new thing, but it’d be nice to have a sunny day. We’ll see. “Four seasons in one day” [WATCH/LISTEN], and all that.