Rainy for the Winter Solstice

Issued at 01:32pm 20-Jun-2005
Rainy for the Winter Solstice

The rain band that is moving onto the country has triggered MetService meteorologists to issue some heavy rainfall warnings for Tuesday, the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice will take place at 6:46pm on Tuesday evening. That is the exact time when the sun appears to stop moving north and start moving south.

Rainfall warnings are in place for most of the Southern Alps. Significant amounts of rain are expected to spill over the Alps and possibly bring a rapid rise to river levels in Canterbury and Otago. The northerly winds accompanying this rain band may also bring significant amounts of rain to Nelson, Taranaki, and Bay of Plenty on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

"Winter solstice is taken by many to mark the start of winter", commented MetService Weather Ambassador, Bob McDavitt, "This times in nicely with the coldest time of the year which is still six weeks away, usually between late July and early August."

McDavitt added that the first southerly of winter will be arriving on Wednesday night, and is not likely to linger for long. "There may well be a cooler southerly this weekend with some fresh snow for the ski fields. Up-to-date information on the ski fields and our weather warnings is available from the metservice.com website."

ENDS

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