A Tale of Two Lows

A Tale of Two Lows

While most of New Zealand has enjoyed a couple of days of fine weather,thanks to a ridge of high pressure sitting over the country, this is not set to last. A low pressure system is approaching from the Tasman Sea, bringing rain to most places this weekend.

"Rain will arrive over South Island areas tomorrow, with heavy falls expected from the afternoon," MetService meteorologist Claire Flynn said. MetService currently has severe weather watches in place for heavy rain in Westland from Friday afternoon, and for Buller and the ranges of northwest Nelson on Saturday.

While the east of the South Island can expect small amounts of rain on Friday afternoon, the majority of the rain is not expected to reach there until the weekend. Similarly for the North Island, a mainly fine day on Friday will be followed by a wet weekend, especially in western areas.

Early next week, yet another low forms northwest of New Zealand, bringing the chance of heavy rain to the upper North Island as we move into Spring.

"While most places can expect some rain from this second low, the upper North Island will be most affected. However, there is still some uncertainty in the weather models as to the exact position of this low and associated heavy rain. This will have an effect on forecasts for the timing and intensity of weather in these regions; as always, we recommend that people keep up to date with our latest forecasts," Flynn said.

Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings at metservice.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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