A wet end to winter for northern New Zealand

A wet end to winter for northern New Zealand

A large, slow-moving high that has been responsible for several days of settled weather over much of the country this week is feeling the squeeze from a low pressure system approaching from the Tasman Sea. "Though this high has been one of the strongest we've seen this winter, it's starting to weaken, and is slowly retreating eastwards," said MetService meteorologist Peter Little. "The culprit is a mature low over the Tasman Sea, which brought strong winds, large waves and heavy rain to parts of the New South Wales coast this week," added Little.

Though the high remains over the South Island until early next week, the weather deteriorates over northern New Zealand as a band of rain spreads slowly southwards. "During Friday and Saturday, expect strong to gale easterly winds and rain to sweep southwards across Northland and Auckland. The heaviest falls are likely about eastern parts of Northland. On Sunday, the rain reaches the central North Island, but eases to showers in Northland," commented Little.

The remainder of the country's weather continues to be influenced by the slowly departing high. "The lower North Island and much of the South Island will have cloudier skies than the past few days, and patchy drizzle is expected to affect eastern places, mainly morning and night. And the place to be? Hokitika, which has recorded just 0.4mm of rainfall over the past two weeks, with the dry spell set to continue on the West Coast until early next week," Little went on to say.

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