Sticky nights are set to exit Auckland as cooler and more “comfortable” weather rolls in.

Hot and humid weather has hit much of the North Island over the past few days, with humidity reaching more than 90% at points and MetService warning of disrupted sleeps.

However, MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris told the Herald temperatures are expected to drop below 20C overnight.

“At Auckland Airport, the minimum temperature got down to 20.9C between 6am and 7am this morning, the minimum we’re forecasting tonight is 17.

“So it will be a little bit more comfortable.”

Ferris explained the dew point, the measure of how much moisture is in the air, has been high in the City of Sails this week.

Humid weather should start to leave Auckland this afternoon, while more settled weather sets in for the rest of the week. Photo / Dean Purcell.

“[With a] high dew point, you get more uncomfortable conditions, more sticky conditions, so yesterday [afternoon], the dew point was about 23C for Auckland, that is very high.

“Right now, it’s about 15C, so that has dropped off a whole lot, which people will probably be noticing, especially through this afternoon and overnight.”

The hot weather was caused by warm subtropical air being dragged down by northwesterly winds, said Ferris, but the peak of that heat came yesterday afternoon creating “very rare” high dew points around Auckland.

“There’s a westerly wind that is pushing away that high humidity air and at the same time, we have a southerly coming in from the south, which is a lot cooler and is also going to continue to drop off a bit of that moisture for some places.”

Looking forward, Ferris said Wednesday’s weather will be “less sticky”, while the risk of extreme weather for the upper half of the North Island stays low on Thursday and Friday.

“Generally, the weather looks to be pretty settled for most of the country, but if we focus on the upper half of the North Island, it looks to be settled kind of all the way through Waitangi.

“I’m not saying there’s going to be absolutely no wind or perfectly blue skies, but in terms of wet weather or severe weather, not looking like there’s really much risk at all.”

Elsewhere, a heavy rain watch has been placed on Wairarapa, south of Masterton, from 7pm to 3am tomorrow and a strong wind watch starts at the same time for Marlborough Sounds but ends at 1am.