Wet weather is set to spread across the country this week with MetService forecasting a dynamic week of weather with the
merger of a front from the south and a low from the Tasman resulting in soggy conditions for many areas.
A front makes landfall overnight in Fiordland and is already bringing rain to much of the West Coast which will
intensify overnight (Monday) This has prompted our severe weather meteorologists to issue Orange Warnings for Heavy Rain
over Fiordland, parts of Westland and the Otago headwaters starting from this evening. The wetter weather spreads
northwards on Tuesday, with possibly heavy rain affecting Buller, Tasman, and northwest Nelson, while easing in the
areas to the south. For the North Island on the other hand, just a few showers in the west otherwise a pleasant spring
day is expected for tomorrow.
A low forming in the Tasman moves closer to Aotearoa on Wednesday, interacting with the front already over the central
parts of the country. This deepening low is expected to impact the country’s weather in several ways, enhancing rainfall
over the upper South Island and resulting in increasingly wet and windy conditions over the North Island. Periods of
heavy rain will be possible for Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Taranaki on Wednesday evening.
There is some uncertainty about the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday as MetService meteorologist Luis Fernandes
explains, “Our weather forecasting models are not very consistent with each other about what will happen. Different
models put the low in different positions and this has a knock-on effect as to where potentially high-impact weather
might occur. In these situations, we advise people to keep up to date with the latest forecasts as here’s a good chance
there will be changes to the forecasts as we get a clearer picture over the next few days.”
“The wet and windy weather will likely continue into Thursday morning, spreading to Coromandel and Bay of Plenty, but
this should be short-lived. The low picks up pace on Thursday so, while many places start the day off rainy and
blustery, things quickly change in the second half of the day as the low darts off to the east of New Zealand,”
Fernandes says.
Showers continue for the western parts of both island on Thursday evening and Friday morning with another, weaker front
also bringing rain to Southland and Otago, but by Friday evening it will be almost rain free over the country.
For the latest forecasts, watches and warnings got to metservice.com