Covering period of Thursday 21st - Monday 25th July

Stormy weather continues after what has already been an exceptionally turbulent week over Aotearoa, but MetService is forecasting a cold and calmer start to the weekend.

After several days of extreme weather over the South Island, a low has rapidly deepened off the east coast and brought strong wind, heavy rain and snow to Canterbury, Marlborough and the lower North Island this morning (Thursday). By late morning Wellington and Wairarapa were feeling the full force of this low with southerly gales, driving rain and very rough seas affecting those areas. Wellington airport was reporting wind gusts of up to 113 km/h and waves along the south coast of the city were climbing above 6 metres and likely to get higher during Thursday afternoon. These southerly gales spread cold air northwards and bring the risk of 3-6cm of snow near the Desert Road summit today.

This bout of severe weather will be the last for this week as MetService meteorologist Luis Fernandes explains, “Once this low moves away overnight, a ridge of high pressure moves over the country, and we expect a much calmer day on Friday with just a few showers for the eastern parts of New Zealand.”

The settled weather comes at a price as temperatures will be low across the country for the start of the last weekend of the school holiday, and this will be most obvious in the far north as the milder weather comes to an end for Auckland and Northland. “Evenings and early mornings will be noticeably colder than they have been for a while up north so many people may find themselves cranking up the heating on Friday and Saturday.” Fernandes says.

While it will be a benign start to the weekend, a low deepening in the Tasman Sea will be creeping closer, bringing the next change in weather. By Sunday it will be wet, windy and somewhat warmer in the far north but remains cold and mostly dry for the rest of New Zealand. Fernandes continues, “The Tasman low will be the weather-maker for next week, as it very slowly approaches and eventually passes over the country, bringing an unsettled week with bouts of wet weather for most places.” Already saturated parts of both islands are likely to see more rain and MetService will be closely monitoring those regions next week.

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