Mount Cook has enjoyed its warmest October day in 88 years as it joined a number of South Island towns and districts baking under record or near record temperatures.
Conditions were delightful on New Zealand's highest mountain on Thursday as the mercury climbed to 25.2C - its warmest October day since records began in 1929.
Elsewhere temperatures on Thursday soared well into the 20s across much of inland Canterbury, Otago, and Southland with one climate station in the Waitaki District topping 30C.
This was just shy of the warmest October temperature on record in New Zealand, which occurred on October 10 in 1914 in Timaru when the temperature reached 32.8C.
While the above average temperatures were driven by warm air flowing from Australia, a dry September may also have contributed, NIWA forecaster Ben Noll said.
Queenstown alone is in the middle of a 25-day dry spell, he said.
THURSDAY'S TEMPERATURES:
* 30.1C in the Waitaki District, about 9 km west of Otematata
* 28.6C in Cromwell in Central Otago, its second warmest October day since records began in 1949
* 28C in Clyde in Central Otago, its third warmest October day since records began in 1978
* 27.8C in Alexandra in Central Otago, its fifth warmest October day
* 27.3C in Lauder in Central Otago, its second warmest October day since records began in 1924
* 25.8C at Five Rivers in Southland, its warmest October day since records began in 1982
* 25.2 at Mt Cook in the Mackenzie Region, its warmest October day since records began in 1929
SHARE ME