High pressure smothers New Zealand today bringing lighter winds to many places, even Wellington gets a break in the strong to gale force winds (although they do return by Wednesday).

Much of NZ is dry today but there will be a few isolated showers or downpours in both main islands, mainly rural but a few coastal western areas too (like Waikato and Auckland). Inland and northern areas will be warm to hot with daytime highs across the 20 degree range and into the mid 20s. Highs in the 30s may be possible tomorrow as nor’westers kick back in for some in the east.

Of the biggest main centres Dunedin is the coolest today, with cloudier skies and a high of around 15 to 17 degrees. Hamilton will be in the mid 20s, although likely cloudier than it was yesterday. Auckland will also be cloudier and a touch cooler (by day) with the risk of a shower. Nothing substantial though.

Maps most relevant today are…

• Live Rain Radar
• Animated Temperature Maps
• RuralWeather: Localised Cloud, UV & Temperature Data & Graphs

See your local hourly & 10 day forecast at WeatherWatch.co.nz – or for more details and event planning visit RuralWeather.co.nz for the most detailed and hyper-local forecasts in NZ.

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• It’s possible further updates will be added to this Newsfeed today, please check back for updates.
• Programming Note: VIDEOS OVER SUMMER — We will have reduced video coverage over the coming month ahead. We’re a small company and need time out too! We’ll still have daily news and maps here, but our YouTube channel will have much fewer updates for 4 weeks starting from after Christmas. We’ll still cover anything major (Like a cyclone).

📺Every weather video update from us this week will cover Christmas Day & Boxing Day.

Programming Notes this week:
– NZ Videos every day (but NO video this Friday, sorry).
– Pacific 7 Day (last one for the year tomorrow)
– Aussie 7 Day (one day earlier this week, on Wednesday). pic.twitter.com/znGC1kqOdn

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) December 17, 2023