Some very rough weather has moved over the country today, more so the South Island when it comes to the strongest winds and heaviest rain.

Looking at a wind map, right up the east coast of the South Island is where the strongest winds will be today. Here are some of the highest wind speeds for the eastern South Island today:

Invercargill 12:00am – S 85 km/h (Peak wind gust between 11pm 20th March – 12am 21st March)

Nugget Point 8:00am – S 115 km/h (Observed on the hour)

Oamaru Airport 10:00am – SW 50 km/h (Observed on the hour)

Christchurch 12:00pm – SW 43 km/h (Observed on the hour)

Kaikoura 12:44pm – S 61 km/h (gust 74 km/h)

Wellington currently has strong northwesterly winds of around 40 to 45 km/h and will change to the south later this afternoon.

As for rainfall the lower South Island has had the highest totals over the past 24 hours. The below modelled accumulation map shows the lower South Island is likely to have the highest rainfall. So lets look at some totals:

Invercargill – 50.2mm

Lumsden – 65.8mm

Gore – 57mm

Alexandra – 10.4mm

Dunedin – 31.4mm

Oamaru Airport – 14mm

Rainfall will increase across Canterbury this afternoon with rainfall moving into the region right now but totals will not be as high as further south.