New Zealand is smothered in moisture-rich subtropical air creating low cloud, fog, mist, drizzle and areas of quite heavy rain. This set up continues across Sunday and into Monday and while it mostly clears into Tuesday a narrow band of rain will linger over the North Island with nothing to blow it away due to increasing air pressure. It should mostly fade away by Wednesday.

Here are the main highlights and maps exclusively made for WeatherWatch.co.nz by meteorologists we now partner with at The Weather Company (an IBM business).

• Patchy drizzle mixed in with heavy slow moving falls have been observed over the North Island and northernmost part of the South Island so far and will continue across Sunday.
• Additional heavy rainfall is expected over Nelson, also the south western and northern parts of the North Island today. As of 12noon it was crossing over Auckland with heavy falls.
• The area of heavy rain then moves to central part of North Island and Bay of Plenty, as the front moves eastward. 
• Rain accumulation could be higher locally due to a topographic effect (the hills and ranges slowing down the rain bands).
• There could be some isolated thunderstorms.

WHAT HAS ALREADY FALLEN:

– Maps and highlights provided by meteorologists at The Weather Company exclusively for WeatherWatch.co.nz

– WeatherWatch.co.nz