Taranaki to Wellington, the pick of the weekend weather

Taranaki to Wellington, the pick of the weekend weather - 15th March 2018

MetService News Release
15th March 2018

It’s an active end to the week for the South Island as MetService forecasters predict the return of heavy rain for the West Coast and stronger winds in the east during Thursday night and through into Friday. For many though, the weekend is looking like a much more settled affair albeit with some lingering cloud and showers across the north of the country.

A band of rain is forecast to move northwards across the South Island during Thursday and the lower North Island on Friday. MetService has issued severe weather warnings for heavy rain for parts of the West Coast and warnings for severe gales through the Canterbury High Country. “It looks set to be rather a windy and wet night for the South Island” MetService Meteorologist John Law said, “Although the heaviest rainfall is likely to be about the ranges of the West Coast, with a strong northwesterly wind accompaning the rain there will be a significant amount of rain reaching the headwaters of the Canterbury lakes and rivers”

As the rain pushes northwards, an area of high pressure builds across the South Island for the weekend bringing some drier and more settled conditions there “With the high pressure over the South Island, there is plenty of dry weather there this weekend but still some cloud reluctant to clear at times too” Law commented.

“For the North Island, the brightest spots this weekend are set to be from Taranaki and Whanganui down to Wellington on the North Island while the easterly feed of air means it could be rather a cloudy one for places like Hawke’s bay and Gisborne” said Law “Northland and Auckland will also find some stubbon cloud this weekend and a few showers too”.

The fine weather forecast for Taranaki this weekend will be well recieved by those attending this year’s WOMAD festival in New Plymouth. “There will be a few showers about New Plymouth as the first tents go up but as we head into the weekend there should be plenty of sunshine for WOMAD and daytime temperatures are set to reach 22C” said Law.

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