December 15, 2014

Another Wet Wednesday

There was a great contrast in the weekend weather over New Zealand. While heavy rain and strong winds buffeted the far north of the country, the weather over the South Island could not have been more different with plenty of unbroken sunshine and light winds. Looking ahead for the rest of the week, another area of low pressure from the Tasman Sea is set to bring a fresh bout of rain and blustery conditions for Wednesday, this time reaching down to the South Island as well.

The wet weather experienced in Northland and Auckland over the weekend was the result of an area of low pressure that had developed over the northern parts of the Tasman Sea before moving south and eastwards across the far north of the country. "The Tasman Sea has been a great area of development over the last few days helping these areas of low pressure to form" MetService Meteorologist John Law said "This week, another area of wet and windy weather will sink southwards across the country from the Tasman around the middle of the week." Although the South Island avoided the rain on Sunday it is a different story on Wednesday, "Over the weekend we had a broad area of high pressure - an anticyclone- right across the South of the country and this acted to block the rain from moving southwards. The next system to move across New Zealand isn't going to encounter the same situation so we are expecting the rain to reach right down to parts of the South Island." Law said.

After a distinctly cool start to the month the temperatures this week look set to climb back up into the high twenties for some spots. Highs of 28C or 29C are forecast for parts of the Central South Island while on the North Island the Hutt Valley could be a close contender for the warmest place on Tuesday. A light northeasterly will be keeping spots closer to the east coast a little cooler and with a touch more cloud.

With only ten days left on the Advent calendar before Christmas Day, many peoples thoughts are turning to the weather forecast. "The computers will make their first 10 day forecast for Christmas day tomorrow" Law said "And although it is tempting to treat this forecast with the same level of trust as the forecasts for today and tomorrow, it is worth remembering that a lot can change in the next few days . At the moment, high pressure looks to be the main feature over the country from next weekend in the lead up to Christmas, with the return of northerlies across the country."

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, at MetService New Zealand on Facebook, @metservice on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com.

ENDS

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