After a soggy Wednesday night, many gauges around the Northland and Auckland regions accumulated upwards of 50 mm of
rain, hopefully providing some well needed top ups to dams around the region. As the wild wind and rain wraps up the
working week, MetService forecasts comparatively settled weather over the weekend, to close the school holidays.
A Heavy Rain Warning (Orange) for Coromandel Peninsula remains in place until this evening (Thursday), and is likely to
see a further 100mm of rain accumulate on top of what has already fallen. A Strong Wind Watch for easterlies with gale
gusts is also in place for western Waikato until this evening. “Some towns west of the Kaimai Ranges have already seen
gusts over 100 km/hr. Be weary when driving, as both strong winds and debris on roads will make travel hazardous,”
advises MetService Meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree.
A slow-moving low pressure system in the Tasman continues to dominate much of Aotearoa’s weather through to the end of
the weekend, with a cloudy northeast flow extending down to Canterbury.
The onshore flow will also continue to bring periods of wet weather into Gisborne with the region covered by a Heavy
Rain Warning (Orange) in the north and Watch in the south until Friday evening. Periods of rain are expected to continue
for Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, and Northland, but will gradually ease by Sunday.
The southern ski fields are the place to be this weekend, rising above the lingering low cloud in valleys and basins.
Light winds and settled skies will come to a timely end early next week as our winter westerlies are set to return.