MetService News Release
Thursday, 17 Jul 2014
Winter to tighten its grip
The cold southerly flow, which has chilled the country for the last few days, bringing clear skies for many western
areas, but exposing eastern areas to rather volatile shower activity, weakens today as a narrow ridge of high pressure
spreads over the South Island. With New Zealand sandwiched between two areas of low pressure, an unsettled weekend
follows, with rain or showers at some point for most places.
An area of low pressure will cross the upper North Island during the weekend. A burst of heavier rain is expected about
Auckland and Coromandel duringSaturday, and Gisborne, parts of the Bay of Plenty and the Kaimai Range on Sunday.
"Although accumulations are likely to be below the usual warning criteria for Northland, forecasters are conscious that
any rainfall in this area is going to pose problems. For this reason, a rain warning may be issued for Northland for
thiscoming Saturday, "commented meteorologist Liz Walsh.
Elsewhere, the cold southerlies rekindle and sweep showers through Canterbury from tomorrow, falling as snow above 500
metres. More widespread areas of rain or showers spread over the South Island during Saturday and the North Island into
Sunday.
"Typically, from now until mid-August, we are entering the coldest time of the year, so watch out for snow to low
levels, especially later in the weekend for our most southern regions," Walsh went on to say.
Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings atmetservice.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.