Last week has seen two significant storms, the second one just in time for the weekend. Rain, wind and snow have caused
some disruption to business as usual for New Zealanders. Instability in the atmosphere brought thunderstorms over the
North Island on Monday. A front swept over the country from late Wednesday and a second on Friday and Saturday. There
were road closures due to snow on the South Island and a tornado sighting in Waikato that was captured by a member of
the public and send to the Metservice’s Facebook page.
“With the last front Invercargill, Dunedin and Wellington had mean speeds of 55 km/h, while Auckland reached 45 km/h,
and at more higher and exposed places like Mt Kaukau in Wellington, Le Bons Bay near Christchurch and Nugget Point south
of Dunedin mean wind speeds of 90 km/h were recorded.” Said Meteorologist Gerrit Keyser. “There has also been a
significant amount of rain in the last 24 hours with places about the South Islands receiving 50 to 100 mm.”
The weather is changing now with a ridge building over the country, bringing fine weather to most places. This lasts
until Wednesday when another system is set to sweep across the country bringing the variability of spring weather back
to New Zealand. This next system looks like it could bring a period of significant heavy rain to the west of the South
Island and northwest gales to central New Zealand.
It will be a good idea for people to keep up to date with the latest weather information from MetSevice with respect to
the changeable weather this coming week.