North Island brightening up during Tuesday

Monday 7th November 2016

North Island brightening up during Tuesday

A rain band moving over the North Island overnight and this morning has been bringing heavy rain, with many places in the upper North Island recording 15 – 25 mm of rainfall within one hour last night. As the rain eases in the north, the weather focus will shift to central New Zealand where a Watch for heavy rain is now in force for Wellington, Wairarapa and eastern Marlborough. The weather further south has been much more settled, though scattered showers are expected to pop up for inland areas this afternoon.

“While the rain has eased over the upper North Island, showers and thunderstorms could still bring localised heavy rain and hail to the North Island today,” said MetService Meteorologist Claire Flynn. “Southwesterly winds are also looking like they’ll pick up later today for the upper North Island, and Aucklanders could notice that it will get quite windy,” said Flynn.

Heavy rain Watches are in force for Wellington, Wairarapa, and parts of Marlborough from Monday afternoon to early Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, most Severe Weather Watches for the upper North Island have been cancelled, or will soon ease.

On Tuesday, showers should be clearing up for most parts of the North Island during the morning, though it will take a bit longer to clear for Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. Meanwhile, a front edges onto the south of the South Island, bringing rain to western areas south of Hokitika and a few showers in the far south further east.

“Northwesterly winds are expected to pick up on Wednesday in eastern parts of the South Island, ahead of the front as it starts to progress northwards,” Flynn said. “Northwesterly winds dry the air out as it comes over the Alps and warm things up, meaning that temperatures could get into the mid-twenties for eastern parts of the South Island. However, things will cool off as the front moves through bringing a southerly change and a few showers.”

During the latter part of the week, another low pressure system approaches New Zealand.
Flynn said, “This low pressure system is likely to bring rain to most parts of the country later in the week. However, there is some uncertainty regarding the exact position of the low, and which areas could get the most persistent or heavier rain, as it moves over New Zealand. As always, we will be watching this system carefully as it develops, and you can stay updated at metservice.com.”

Official Severe Weather Watches and Warnings are reviewed and re-issued by MetService at least every twelve hours, and more often if necessary. To get the most up to date information on severe weather around the country, or any other forecasts, see 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 and @MetServiceWARN on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com

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