Brighter for the weekend

MetService News Release
Thursday, 14 Aug 2014

Brighter for the weekend

The cold southwest flow dominates the situation heading into the weekend,with a windy and unsettled few days expected across many parts of New Zealand. However, a high waits in the wings out in the Tasman Sea, and arrives over the weekend ensuring some fine, dry and more settled weather for Saturday andSunday.

With west to southwest gales affecting many regions today, MetService has issued Strong Wind Warnings for parts of Southland, Otago, Nelson and Banks Peninsula. In the North Island Wind Warnings are in place for Central Hawkes Bay, the Coromandel Peninsula and western areas of the Bay of Plenty. A Severe Weather Watch for strong winds is also in force for many other areas of Aotearoa.

More wintry weather is also likely for parts of the South Island, with those strong southwesterlies bringing snow to low levels about southern Fiordland, Southland, Clutha, the Otago hills and ranges south of Alexandra and also about Bank Peninsula. A Watch is now in place for the possibility of heavy snow above 300 metres for these regions. A fresh covering of snow is also expected for the North Island Central Plateau, affecting the Desert Road. The combination of strong southerly winds and cold temperatures is likely to lead to a significant wind chill effect for many.

The winds are also set to bring large waves to both the east and west coast,with seas expected to be around 7 metres. Both wind and seas will ease during the weekend.

The good news is that the weather is on track to improve this weekend. "Once we are through this windy and wintry spell, there is the reward of a better weekend to come," an optimistic MetService meteorologist John Law said. "The winds are set to ease across New Zealand during Friday and heading into the weekend and showers become more confined to the eastern coasts forSaturday before clearing Sunday".

Clear skies overnight and lighter winds will be the perfect conditions for a frosty start to Sunday for many parts of the country, especially inland parts of the North and South Islands.

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.

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