A wet week brings relief to farmers

A wet week brings relief to farmers

This week may have commuters habitually packing an umbrella, but rain-thirsty farmers on the east coast of both islands will be relieved at the filling of their tanks.

"A low pressure system that brought heavy falls of rain to much of the North Island on Sunday is set to stick around for the rest of the week", said meteorologist Tom Adams, "As the low weakens on Thursday, another low moves in from the Tasman, keeping the weather pattern pretty much the same". A ridge of high pressure lies over the far south keeping Southland and the West Coast bathed in spring sunshine, but the rest of the country will see showers almost every day this week.

Hawkes Bay and Gisborne saw heavy rain on Sunday and this morning. A total of 114mm was recorded at Gisborne airport in the 24 hours to noontoday ( Monday), one-and-a-half times the average total for the whole of September. The rain was even heavier in the ranges, with several 24 hour readings in excess of 150mm. This rain will clear for a time on Tuesday, before returning again on Thursday. As the focus of the rain moves south, Wairarapa can expect periods of heavy rain from late this afternoon untilThursday. Marlborough and the Kaikoura Coast (which has only had 43% of its usual rain so far this year) look set for an extended rainy spell betweentonight and Thursday. Further south, Canterbury can expect a good dose of rain from Tuesday, and eastern Otago from Wednesday into Friday. This should bring some relief for North Canterbury, which has also received just under half the normal rainfall so far in 2015. Thunderstorms associated with the low could also bring hail and localised downpours to northern Hawkes Bay and Gisborne today, before shifting west to parts of the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland on Tuesday afternoon.

Finally, while rain is the big story, strong southeasterly winds that have grounded planes in New Plymouth and caused disruption throughout the central and southern North Island will continue around Kapiti, Wellington and Marlborough through to Tuesday morning. Snow which had trapped skiers on Mt Ruapehu will continue throughout Monday, with an additional 10-20cm expected above 800m in Hawkes Bay and the central North Island, while snow is also forecast above 500m in Marlborough. However, as temperatures rise through the week snow should become less prevalent.

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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