Another week of warm and mostly dry weather

MetService News Release
Monday, 12 Jan 2015

Another week of warm and mostly dry weather

This week will again be dry and warm for many, as high pressure lingers across the country. A front is forecast to move onto the West Coast during Friday, then weaken over Central New Zealand during Saturday. This front brings some wet weather to the West Coast, but little if any rain to eastern parts of the South Island. Ahead of the front, hot northwest winds will keep the temperatures high, especially in the east.

It has been a dry start to the year for many places, especially those east of the main mountain ranges. "The topography of New Zealand has a large influence on rainfall distribution," said MetService Meteorologist Peter Little. "There hasn't been much rain anywhere in the country, and what we have seen has been blocked from the east of the South Island by the Southern Alps."

The forecast this week does bring some cloud and isolated showers for eastern parts of the country. "Although we are expecting some showers for Canterbury and Otago this week, it isn't the prolonged period of wet weather that many farmers and gardeners are hoping for," Little said.

The North Island remains under the influence of the ridge of high pressure all week, with mostly fine weather expected. Warm afternoons should help showers to bubble up inland; otherwise it's just more of the same summery weather for most places.

Further afield, a subtropical low passes well east of New Zealand later this week. Although this low isn't expected to have much of an impact on our weather, it will build easterly swells onto the east coast of the North Island. "It's going to be beach weather across much of the North Island this week, but people heading to eastern shores later in the week need to be aware of the potential for increased wave heights," Little commented.

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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