Keeping an eye on the tropics

MetService News Release
Monday, 09 Mar 2015

Keeping an eye on the tropics

After the active systems of the weekend this week starts in a much quieter fashion. A weak ridge of high pressure remains situated across much of New Zealand at the beginning of the week, while a series of fronts move across the lower South Island. A few weak troughs may bring showery weather to the North Island later in the week, while the ridge builds again over the South Island.

For the North Island, light winds and generally fine weather start the week as a ridge of high pressure remains in place. As the ridge weakens over the northern part of the country from mid-week, a few more showers may affect the North Island.

Over the South Island, a weak front moving onto the southwest today brings a few showers, but largely confined to the west and far south. However, a stronger front on Tuesday will bring modest southerly winds and more rain or showers south of Christchurch. The front will continue to move north on Wednesday and bring showers to northern parts of the South Island as it weakens. Another weak feature could bring a few showers back to the south of the country later in the week, but high pressure looks to return bringing settled weather to the South Island in time for the weekend.

"The weekend saw a return to much more active weather across New Zealand," said MetService Meteorologist John Law. "This week it looks like we are still likely to find a few more showers creeping northwards across the South Island, but not nearly as much rain as we saw at the end of last week.

While it is late in the tropical cyclone season, a low shows signs of development northeast of Vanuatu and is worth keeping an eye on if you are headed to the Pacific Islands. Although at the moment the system is forecast to remain north of New Zealand, MetService meteorologists will continue to monitor the system through the week. "The forecasting team will be paying extra close attention to the tropics this week and will be liaising with their counterparts from the Fiji Meteorological Service," Law said. As always you can find all the latest forecasts and information at MetService.com.

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.

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