Wet for the North, dry for the South - 19 February 2017

MetService News Release
19 February 2017

“For the past couple of days, the country has been stuck in a moist northeast flow caused by a high east of the Chatham Islands that refused to budged said MetService Forecaster Tuporo Marsters.” A trough became slow moving over the North Island in this setup and caused heavy downpours from the Bay of Plenty to the Hawkes Bay region with 3 day totals being over 100mm. “Tauranga had the most with 144mm followed by Hamilton, Taupo and Napier reaching 105 mm. Places up in Northland got another top up of 50 to 60mm while 8mm fell over Christchurch to help dampen the fires on the Port Hills, Marsters added.”

During the afternoons over the central North Island, moist air, daytime heating and converging winds caused thunderstorms to bubble up adding to the rain that had already fallen. There had also been some buildups over the Nelson and Marlborough ranges with Blenheim catching 28mm.

Conditions will improve somewhat over the next couple of days as the high near the Chatham Islands nudges closer and sinks slightly south directing an east to southeast flow over the North Island and northerlies around to the South Island. What this means is that sheltered places like Tauranga, Hamilton and Palmerston North and even Christchurch will see fine weather, while Hastings and Gisborne may see the odd shower. Greymouth sees rain on Tuesday as the northerlies become established.

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