NZ

While most of New Zealand looks set to have a dry Christmas Day a potential low/rainmaker in the north is one to monitor. The low is connected to a few other systems which will drag rain in this weekend to the country from the north west of NZ.

*UPDATED Wednesday  **BOOKMARK THIS PAGE FOR DAILY UPDATES**

It's the countdown to Christmas Day! Here's the latest WeatherWatch.co.nz forecast for New Zealand on December 25th.

We have just a week until Christmas but a number of low pressure systems on the way between now and then.

A low moves into the South Island on Wednesday with a big temperature drop thanks to a southerly change. This low moves into the North Island on Thursday.

New Zealand was affected by tens of thousands of thunderstorms last week and all of them delivered significant heavy downpours inland, some with flash flooding.

The map below clearly shows you where the bulk of the daytime downpours formed - it's a helpful map as it shows why some coastal fringes in New Zealand are drier than average while inland areas are not.

It's hotter than normal for mid-December both today and Tuesday across much of New Zealand but some areas will get a significant mid-week cool down.

Last week the theme was afternoon thunderstorms and downpours, this week it’s all about temperature fluctuations which are spring-like and two lows which will bring more rain and showers.

We've seen some big thunderstorms across New Zealand in recent days, in fact our lightning data indicates tens of thousands of lightning flashes have been detected across the country.

Many of those have been around Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty but many others have formed around Hawke's Bay, Northland, the Central and lower North Island and the ranges of the upper South Island.

Those big afternoon downpours become far more isolated today with a mainly dry day across NZ thanks to a big high.

The high has been building for days but today is the first day it will perfectly covered the nation.

Winds will be light with afternoon lake and sea breezes.

Cyclone Owen has reached ‘severe’ category 3 status and may reach 4 before making landfall in northern Australia and then tracking, unusually, down through Queensland coming in from the north west.

Cyclone Owen is now a Severe Category 3 Tropical Cyclone and Australian forecasters say it may peak at Category 4 today before making landfall in northern Australia and then sliding down the Queensland coast as a significant rain event.