Christmas Day forecast

Christmas Day forecast

The weather on Christmas Day is still looking a bit mixed,thanks to a weather system moving across the country.

MetService Media and Communications Meteorologist Daniel Corbett commented,"At this point, Christmas Day doesn't look like a complete wash out - but people will have to plan for a bit of damp weather at some stage during the day."

The offending weather system will start to spread wet weather over the west coast of the South Island from Monday evening into Tuesday (Christmas Eve). MetService has issued a Severe Weather Warning for heavy rain there and also about the Tararua Ranges. In addition, a Severe Weather Watch has been issued for the tightening pressure gradient that is expected to bring strong northwest gales across central New Zealand during Christmas Eve.

The trailing cold front will move across southern and central New Zealand on Christmas Eve to lie across the north of the North Island by Christmas morning. This front will clear the northeast coast of the North Island during the day, but a cooler southwest flow will usher in showers especially across western areas of the North Island and in the east of the South Island.

The weather will be better in some places on Boxing Day, especially along the West Coast of the South Island, but a remnant of the Christmas Day system will leave a few showers hanging around for many.

Exact details on the timing of the weather systems may still change in the run up to Christmas, so keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings at metservice.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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