Settled weather for the weekend

MetService News Release
Thursday 15 June 2017

Settled weather for the weekend

The strong, cold southerly flow these past two days was a definite winter wakeup call for most of New Zealand. Along with blustery winds, heavy swells affected many western, southern and eastern coasts during Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The east coast of the country bore the brunt of the large seas,” said MetService meteorologist Andy Best. “Eastern parts of Cook Strait experienced ‘pure’ swells of 8 metres, while a buoy located east of the Marlborough Sounds recorded swells of 7 metres at 7:30pm Wednesday evening. Off Banks Peninsula, a buoy at Steep Head reported 8 metre swells at 9pm Wednesday night, with combined swells (pure swell plus wind waves) reaching 12 metres,” Best explained.

Another, weaker southerly change moves up the South Island today, then across the North Island on Friday morning. This front brings a few showers, but the winds die away late on Friday.

The good news is that high pressure moves over the country from the Tasman Sea during Saturday and Sunday. This means mostly fine weather, after the clearance of morning mist and cloud, and light winds. There are still some cool mornings ahead, with frosts in sheltered places on Saturday and Sunday morning. Later on Sunday, high cloud moves over the south of the South Island and scattered rain develops ahead of an approaching front.

For the All Blacks match at Eden Park Friday evening, dress for a few light showers with light southwesterly winds and temperatures around 13C. It looks fine but cool for the Maori All Blacks game in Rotorua on Saturday, with a temperature of around 8C at the start of the game, and light winds.

Looking ahead to next week, we see a real change in the weather patterns with a low pressure system forecast to develop over the north Tasman Sea on Sunday. This system should move towards the Far North of the country on Monday and Tuesday, bringing more humid air and pushing wet weather onto the upper North Island. This will certainly be a system to watch at the start of next week.

© Scoop Media