Settled Weather Gives Way To A Series Of Fronts

MetService is forecasting a mostly fine day today, after a cold start for most this morning. These settled conditions aren’t around long as a series of fronts zip across the country through the weekend with another cold bout of weather expected early next week.

A front with rain lingers in the northeast of the North Island, but fine weather and cool temperatures prevails for most as a ridge of high pressure dominates this Thursday weather pattern.

MetService meteorologist Kyle Lee explained: “This morning, many stations in the South Island dropped into the negatives, with Tekapo dropping to -5.6C and widespread frost affecting regions in the far south.”

Tomorrow this ridge of high pressure means another cold start is in store with most regions in the North Island below average for this time of year, Taumarunui dropping to 0C, and frosts expected as far north as Auckland.

The settled weather gives way to strong northerly winds and a front affecting western areas of the country Friday evening. There is currently a Strong Wind Watch in force for Fiordland tomorrow night, more details can be found here http://bit.ly/AllWarnings.

This front sweeps across the country early Saturday bringing rain to almost all of Aotearoa. Once the front has passed, the second half of Saturday is more settled with lingering showers in western areas.

“The northerly flow will also mean the temperatures should recover behind the front with temperatures returning to average for this time of year, and possibly a few parts of the country reaching the 20C mark again,” explained Lee.

The settled weather will be good news for anyone looking to attend the Trans-Tasman Super Rugby game in Christchurch on Saturday evening where conditions are expected to be dry with light winds for kick off.

On Sunday, another front is set to affect the South Island and make its way onto the North Island late Sunday, bringing more strong winds and rain to areas across New Zealand.

Changeable winter-like weather patterns continue with another cold front in store to affect New Zealand early next week. It is expected to bring an abrupt drop in temperatures with snow potentially affecting the South Island Alpine Passes.
 

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