Bone dry regions Auckland and Northland are in for at least another 10 days of dry weather despite tropical storms forming north of the regions.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says large highs in the Tasman Sea are responsible for drawing out the dry weather, preventing any rain bearing lows moving towards New Zealand from the South Pacific.

“This happened just last week” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan. “A sub-tropical low bringing plenty of rain was pushed east thanks to the high in the Tasman, bringing no rain at all to Northland and Auckland”.

Mr Duncan says a current tropical storm near Fiji and another potential cyclone north of New Caledonia next week look like they’ll both miss New Zealand because of the strong highs. “While a tropical cyclone isn’t ideal for New Zealanders the significant rain fall, delivered properly, could be just what we need. However the big high pressure systems in the Tasman Sea are keeping the rain clouds away from the north”.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the highs are stronger than the lows pushing against them and believes the rest of March may well stay dry and mostly settled for northern New Zealand.