A ridge of high pressure for the North this weekend

A ridge of high pressure for the North this weekend

It was an interesting start to the week, with Cyclone Pam dominating the weather headlines. Pam brought heavy rain to northern Hawke's Bay and Gisborne; blasted eastern parts of Northland, Great Barrier Island and Gisborne with severe gales; and also sent huge waves crashing into the east coast of the North Island. "Cyclone Pam then went on to lash the Chatham Islands, where two wharves were significantly damaged and a boat that was buried in the sand at Owenga was unearthed after 38 years," commented MetService Meteorologist Peter Little. For a summary of TC Pam, head to the MetService Blog at http://blog.metservice.com/2015/03/tc-pam-summary/

The remnants of Cyclone Pam now lie well away to our east, leaving us with a cool southwesterly flow that brought showers to parts of the country yesterday and again today. A ridge of high pressure has begun to build over the South Island which made for a chilly autumn morning inland. Little added, "There were frosts in a number of places, with Pukaki starting the day on -2.4C, Lumsden on -1.7C and Queenstown on -0.6C".

The ridge spreads onto central New Zealand during Friday bringing clearing weather to most places, although a few showers linger in northern and eastern parts of the North Island. "The run of sunny days on the West Coast looks to come to an end as a northerly flow brings in cloud, along with patchy light rain or drizzle, on Friday," said Little.

A trough approaching from the Tasman Sea is expected to bring rain to the west and south of the South Island on Saturday, with scattered falls for most other places by the end of the weekend. Over the North Island it's looking mostly fine as the ridge remains strong. "With a fine day expected, it will likely be raining fours and sixes at Wellington Regional Stadium on Saturday for New Zealand's quarter final against the West Indies," Little went on to say. You can check out MetService's other New Zealand stadium forecasts here:http://metservice.com/cricket.html

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, at MetService New Zealand on Facebook, @metservice on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com

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