National News

A cold change is today moving up the South Island and will reach Wellington this evening says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

The front is bringing the first cooling off of national temperatures so far this year and the further south you are the more brutal it will be.

In Southland strong sou'westers will reach gale force at times with rain and showers right through the next few days.  The highs in Invercargill will struggle to reach the teens, if that, right through until Monday.

It may not be a severe cold blast but it's certainly enough for all New Zealanders to take note that summer has ended, as a sou'wester brings in much cooler air from well south of the country.

Southland will be most affected with daytime temperature dropping to just 12 or 13 degrees on Friday while Saturday and Sunday only fair a little better.   But the cooler sou'wester will affect all of the country, as far north as Auckland and Northland.

WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan says temperatures from Auckland northwards this weekend will only be around 20 degrees and while not exactly 'freezing' it's certainly well down from the mid to late 20s of late.

It's a mild afternoon for many regions as a high brings mostly settled, sunny weather to the country.

In Auckland a band of cloud since this morning has shrouded the eastern half of the city in cloud while western suburbs remain sunny.

Temperatures are between 23 and 25 across Auckland with a 21 to 24 degree spread across Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Sea-level measurements reveal that six locations around the country saw peak wave heights of more than a metre generated by last week's devastating earthquake near Chile.

A tsunami warning was issued for New Zealand after the three-minute, 8.8-magnitude quake struck off the coast of the Maule region of Chile last Saturday. A death toll of at least 550 has been estimated.

It's 6:50am...my cellphone beeps.... it's a text message. "What's the weather going to be like today?". Welcome to my life. I have a really interesting job... because no matter where I am on the planet, so long as I'm around people who speak English, people can straight away have a conversation with me. The minute I describe what I do there is no shortage of conversation.

The past 7 days have been busy here at WeatherWatch.co.nz with numerous updates and stories posted throughout the week - but particularly on Sunday following the Chilean earthquake and the resulting tsunami warnings.

We've compiled the top links of the week below, covering the best photos, the best videos and the most read news stories just in case you missed them or want to see them again.

UPDATED
A rapidly deepening low will today move closer to north eastern New Zealand from the sub-tropics bringing big seas, strong winds and potentially heavy rain to some parts this weekend says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

The low, which will have a central air pressure of just 987hPa by Saturday morning, should lie near East Cape during Sunday.

WeatherWatch.co.nz has increasing confidence that heavy rain and gale force winds will affect north eastern parts of the North Island, mainly around East Cape.

Two people have walked away from a helicopter crash at Ardmore Airport in South Auckland with minor injuries.

Papakura police attended the scene around 10am. The injured pilot and passenger were taken to Middlemore Hospital for treatment.

A deepening low is going to brush the eastern coast of the North Island this weekend bringing rain, strong winds and big swells, says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

The centre of the low is unlikely to move over the country but it will most likely brush East Cape bringing strong, possibly gale, southerly winds to exposed places.

The deep low is also likely to bring large swells and rough seas to many eastern beaches, particularly from Gisborne to Napier.

The fifth small wave to pass through the Heathcote & Avon estuary at Christchurch NZ Occurred at 1750 (local time) 28.02.2010 more than 5 thousand miles from the coast of Chile.

The video is from YouTube user vivhead1.

If you have video of the weekend's tsunami use the Contact Us button at the top of the page and let us know.