The weekend forecast is looking fairly dry and calm – but by no means perfectly settled as another low heads towards the country.

While Saturday sees light winds and dry weather from Southland to Northland thanks to a very large high pressure system covering the entire country, Sunday does see a change developing – especially in the South Island and lower North Island – as another stormy system in the Southern Ocean brushes by and the high drifts away to our east.

“Basically we’re getting a lot of active lows in the Southern Ocean circling around Antarctica at the moment. Each low has a cold front attached and this is effectively sideswiping New Zealand every few days” says head weather forecaster Philip Duncan. “A dusting of snow on the South Island ranges today, warmer winds Sunday, cooler again on Monday” says Mr Duncan.

Sunday will see heavy rain return to the West Coast and winds picking up around Wellington, Marlborough and Canterbury and a variety of temperatures.

As for Christmas Day? WeatherWatch.co.nz is now lifting our chance of a dry day from 60% to 75% across New Zealand as models continue to confirm a high coming in. However there will be the leftovers of a tropical low to our east, so we hope to lock in a more detailed Christmas forecast within the next 36 hours.

Saturday

Yellow – Temperatures getting into the mid or perhaps even late 20’s for the east of the North Island in the afternoon.

Sunday

Blue – Rain about South Westland pushes northwards during the day, expect heavy falls then easing in the evening.

Purple – Northwesterly winds for the east of the South Island and the lower North Island will be brisk to strong during the day. Winds may gust to gale at times for inland areas and about Cook Strait then easing later in the day / overnight.

Yellow – Temperatures for the east of the South and North Islands getting into the mid to late 20’s during the afternoon.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz