Weekend Forecast 24th - 25th March 2012

[JennyLeez]

Post your location or national forecasts for this weekend below.

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[Te Puke Weather]

Sub-tropical low causing minor flooding, strong winds

Posted by wwadmin on Wed, 21/03/2012 - 20:04
Filed in:National News North Island
UPDATED 8:04pm ---  Heavy rain has caused minor surface flooding across Auckland this evening while over in Coromandel Peninsula, eastern Waikato and Bay of Plenty wild winds are creating power surges along with the heavy rain.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the low has moved in much sooner than first thought - and will clear sooner too.  "The main rain band has almost entirely cleared Northland while Auckland will see a clearance in the next hour or two".

Northland missed out on the worst of the rain however centres south of Whangarei have seen heavy rain for the past few hours.

In Auckland the torrential rain started around 4pm and for some areas it has barely let up.

Mr Duncan says he is surprised a rain warning hasn't been issued for Auckland in light of the heavy rain  that fell on Monday. 

Meanwhile in Bay of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula and eastern Waikato strong winds appear to be causing power surges according to comments posted on our Facebook page.

Earlier Story (5:30pm)

Yesterday WeatherWatch.co.nz said that heavy rain would again return to Northland and Auckland although the two regions were on the edge of the rain band.  Despite no rain warnings in place for either of those two regions today there are large areas of heavy rain currently moving in between Whangarei and Auckland.

WeatherWatch.co.nz doesn't expect major problems but says slips and flooding are possible.

"The old low from Monday is lying just to the west of Northland and is helping pull this new rain band slightly westward towards central and southern parts of Northland and northern parts of Auckland" says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.  "While it's clear the bulk of the rain will affect Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and East Cape we cannot rule out surface flooding and the odd slip this evening in some parts of Auckland, mostly north of the city, and in Northland south of Whangarei".

But Mr Duncan says patches of blue sky and sunshine have already moved into Kaeo in the past few minutes - the small Northland town worst hit by flooding on Monday.  Mr Duncan says it's a sign that the front has already started to clear the Far North.

It is likelty to clear Auckland overnight.

Other regions

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the rain warnings in force by MetService are at the lowest end of the warning scale but are relevant given the big rainfall totals in recent days.

The bulk of the rain - and to a much lesser extent, the wind  - will continue to feed in to Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and East Cape/Gisborne for the rest of Wednesday while clearing slowly from the north west.

In Auckland conditions will be wet and possibly a little windy tonight in exposed areas - but no serious issues are expected apart from minor surface flooding and perhaps a few slips.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says there is a higher risk of surface flooding across Bay of Plenty and Coromandel today with a moderate to high risk of slips.

Wind damage is not expected anywhere.

Conditions will improve for the upper North Island on Thursday with the next burst of sub-tropical rain expected later on Saturday.

Meanwhile the lower South Island has hardly had a mention lately - despite having some of the best weather in the country in recent days.  Temperatures have been mild with plenty of sun.   But unsettled weather is also expected across the deep south, starting on Thursday, with a cold change moving in on Sunday.

- WeatherWatch.co.nz

www.weatherwatch.co.nz

[JennyLeez]

SEVERE WEATHER WATCH FOR SOUTHLAND,OTAGO
ISSUED BY METSERVICE AT 0917hrs 23-Mar-2012

A PERIOD OF HEAVY RAIN DURING SATURDAY FOR FIORDLAND AND THE OTAGO
HEADWATERS

A front is expected to intensify over the Tasman Sea today.  During
Saturday this front is forecast to move across the South Island,
preceded by a strong northerly flow and a period of heavy rain for
the west coast and Alps.  This Watch is for a period of heavy rain in
Fiordland and the headwaters of the Otago lakes and rivers during
Saturday morning and afternoon.  After this time, heavy showers and
possible thunderstorms are expected through to late Saturday.

Rainfall in these areas may approach warning amounts, and rivers and
streams could rise rapidly.  People are advised to keep up to date
with the latest forecasts, in case this Watch is upgraded to a full
Warning.

[JennyLeez]

Weekend outlook by Weatherwatch:

For those of you hoping for a dry weekend, I wish I had better news for you.

But it appears that a couple of weather systems will combine forces to make this a pretty wet weekend for most of New Zealand.

Right now, it looks like Saturday will be the wettest day.  Low pressure to the southwest and low pressure to the northwest will combine to spread rain across the country.

For the North Island, it looks like the morning and much of the afternoon will be dry.  However, late afternoon and into the evening are expected to be pretty wett.  Winds will also increase as the system pushes across Northland and Auckland late Saturday night.  Gale force winds are not expected, but we will monitor the development of the system.

Much of the South Island will likely see rain as early as late Saturday morning.  The exceptions being for eastern regions.  So Christchurch and Dunedin  may not get wet until the afternoon.

On Sunday, the weather system will pull away from us.  That will mean that not all of Sunday will be wet.  In fact, by late afternoon much of the country should be dry.

After that, we could have a few days in a row of fairly settled weather.

By WeatherWatch Analyst Howard Joseph