Tropical Cyclone Gita remains a Category 2 storm and is located in the central/northern Tasman Sea. Winds are sustained in the centre at around 95km/h.

Here’s the latest for New Zealand by qualified meteorologists at The Weather Company especially for WeatherWatch.co.nz.

• Gita will track southeastwards toward central New Zealand around Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning.
• On arrival Gita is expected to have maximum sustained wind speed of 85km/h (gale force is 62 km/h)
• The mountains and ranges will see gusts much higher.
• The interaction with an upper level cold pool leads the transition to an extra-tropical cyclone in the next 24 hours.
• On Tuesday, frontal rainfall over Wellington, Tasman, Nelson, and Canterbury will precede the arrival of Gita. Locally heavy falls for several hours are possible over those areas. Flooding is possible.
• The peak of rainfall in the northern part of the South Island will be during Tuesday night. 
• Rain will continue into Wednesday mainly in the east of the South Island.
• Very dangerous seas and coastal conditions around the country, especially the west.
• Keep up to date with Government Agency MetService and their warnings, watches and outlooks.

Please note – Our next weather video update will be mid afternoon today, a bit later than usual as we work to fine tune the forecast. 

– Tracking by JTWC (US Government), Weather maps by The Weather Company

– WeatherWatch.co.nz