July 10, 2014

Wet weather continues and a cooler change arrives

It has been a windy and wet week across Northland and parts of Auckland. Although these conditions are set to ease for a time, another spell of wet and windy weather is on the cards for Friday night and the start of the weekend.

The pinching of the isobars between an area of low pressure near northern New Zealand and a large high east of the South island, has led to the strong winds in Northland since Tuesday.

"Although the winds are likely to trend more northerly, there will still be gales in the north and stronger winds are likely to spread to other parts of the country as well," MetService Meteorologist John Law said. A Severe Weather Warning remains in place for Northland and Auckland north of the harbour bridge with gusts of 120km/h possible in exposed places.

Leading into the start of the weekend, forecasts are highlighting another band of rain feeding across New Zealand from west to east, accompanied by bursts of heavy rain. Severe Weather Warnings are already in place for southern parts of Westland and into Fiordland as well as the western ranges of Nelson.

"Unfortunately, as the winds shift more northerly ahead of this next feature, we are going to find wet weather returning to spots that have already had a lot of rain recently," Law said. "In addition to another burst of wet weather in Northland and Auckland,the northerly winds are set to push significant rain into the western hills of Nelson on Friday and across the North Island, to the eastern hills of the Bay of Plenty over the weekend."

Although the wettest weather looks reserved for those parts of New Zealand exposed to the north and west, some rainfall is likely further east. On Sunday, a southerly change should push up over the South Island, bringing cooler temperatures and fresh snowfall to the tops of the Otago and Canterbury skifields.

Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings atmetservice.com or on mobile devices at m.metservice.com. You can also follow our updates on MetService TV, @metservice on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com.

ENDS

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