Weather Report - Repeating patterns

The weekend is shaping up to be a repeating pattern of bands of cloud and patchy rain followed by a return to high pressure and settled weather. For the North Island the drier day of the weekend will be Saturday, with a ridge of high pressure building back across the island. Meanwhile, in the south an approaching front is set to push rain back onto the West Coast as higher cloud feeds over the Southern Alps to the eastern districts. During Sunday a southerly change moves northwards across the country spreading cloud and patchy rain onto the lower North Island.

"Weather systems are set to dumbbell around each other this weekend," MetService meteorologist John Law said. "This means that we should all get to enjoy some sunnier spells as well as some showers." The start of December was noticeable for some especially low temperatures with parts of the South Island recording temperatures back down below freezing. "Temperatures look to be heading back towards normal for the time of year," Law added. "And with the return of northwesterly winds on Saturday, spots on the east coast of the South Island are likely to see top temperatures in the twenties once again."

As low pressure moves back towards the West Coast of the South Island on Saturday, rain is forecast to become heavy in Fiordland and Westland for a time. A Heavy Rain Warning is now in force for these areas starting Saturdayafternoon. Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings at metservice.com or on mobile devices at m.metservice.com. You can also follow our updates on MetService TV, at MetService New Zealand on Facebook, @metservice on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com.

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