Speculation that parts of New Zealand could hit 40°C in next few days

The NZ Herald quotes long time climate expert Dr Jim Salinger in their article today – Heatwave: Scientist tips a scorcher – Another bio for Dr Jim Salinger.
Further down the article NZ MetService and WeatherWatch people say that 40 degrees looks unlikely. I hope some Kiwis can send in temperatures from – “…east of the South Island and southern North Island…”. Here is a site where you can type in a NZ locality and get weather data.
Is this a case of Fairfax media believing some of the over-hyped rubbish about heatwaves in Australia and thinking that it had to be the turn of NZ sometime.

10 thoughts on “Speculation that parts of New Zealand could hit 40°C in next few days”

  1. It’s probably okay, guys. When a Fairfax journalist is talking to a climate scientist it’s like the fairies chatting with the pixies.

    Of course, the temp might go over 42C in NZ – which prompts me to ask why it hasn’t done so since 1973.

  2. Thursday 31 January 1431:

    Gisborne 24
    Hastings 24
    Dannieveirke 25
    Masterton 32
    Nelson 23
    Motueka 26
    Blenheim 28
    Timaru 28

    When will he stop crying, “Wolf!”??

  3. We think Mr Salinger may be jumping the gun a bit with the 40C prediction. Perhaps a few more inland places in the low-ish 30’s. Think our high here in Auckland 29 – maybe one day hit 30. Has been too windy for higher temps with the sea breezes coming through. Wish we could take some of the wet stuff from Queensland, looking a bit uncharacteristically dry just now. Some farmers starting to worry for their stock feed, while the grape-growers, vineyards, orchardists rubbing their hands with glee.

  4. Temps in the twenties? Can’t blame the “climate scientist”. He’s just doing the stuff you need to do to become Kiwi of the Year. Then there’s the Nobel and the Oscars.

  5. I glanced at the thermometer at about 8 this morning and noticed that it was already 28.4⁰C outside. About an hour later, it was 31.6⁰C.

    I speculated that if the temperature kept rising at that rate, that by tomorrow morning it would be over 100⁰C; most of the oceans would have boiled off and the only human survivors on the planet would be a few pairs of breeding couples in the Antarctic. Am I too late to be nominated as a lead author for the IPCC’s sixth assessment report? /sarc

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