Warm and humid conditions to come

Last week a trough moved slowly across New Zealand bringing periods of rain and thunderstorms to much of the country. Over the weekend more than 7000 lightning strikes were recorded around Aotearoa, and heavy rain associated with both thunderstorms and slow-moving weather features caused flooding in several parts of the country.

“The coming week bears some similarities in that another slow moving trough slides across New Zealand, but this system is weaker and the weather is not expected to be as severe,” explains MetService Meteorologist Tom Adams.

“While most parts of the country will see some rain over the next few days, we don’t see the same accumulations as we did last week. However there is currently a Heavy Rain Watch out for Otago and the south Canterbury hill country for this evening (Tuesday), and this could cause issues in areas still waterlogged from the previous system.”

Today most of the rain will be centred in the south, with a second Heavy Rain Watch in effect for southern parts of Westland. Wednesday is a reasonable day, although the West Coast sees further rain, and cloud will cover much of the South Island. Meanwhile North Island sees plenty of sun, with a few showers popping up in the afternoon about the ranges.

On Thursday the trough makes its presence known bringing rain to the South Island, especially in the west. Some atmospheric conditions conducive to creating thunderstorms move over the lower half of the South Island so some isolated heavy showers are possible.

On Friday the main focus of the rain shifts to the west of the North Island, and on Saturday the east of the North Island. Meanwhile cooler air sweeps up the South Island on Friday, and whereas Ashburton is picked to reach 26 degrees on Thursday, the maximum expected for Friday is only 16. Finally the trough moves away on Sunday with more settled weather taking hold – for a few days at least.

Despite the rain the trough is not expected to bring much in the way of strong winds with it, and also the warm air it brings will make for warm and occasionally humid conditions. Auckland for example is not expected to drop below 16 degrees at night for the next week at least, a sign of some sticky nights to come in the city of sails.