Here’s what is making the weather headlines today….

UNSETTLED WEATHER MOVES IN

A front moves northwards over the country today with northerly quarter winds strengthening ahead of it then changing westerly in behind, mostly this affects the South Island today with heavy rain in the west and strong winds out east then the lower North Island sees rain overnight.

Later on or overnight a trough moves into the far south bringing heavy rain and a southerly wind change, this becomes strong with gales likely to develop about coastal parts.

There is heavy rain and wind watches / warnings out regarding today’s activity, some of these carry over into Tuesday. Metservice issue these which you can see here.

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HIGH STARTS MOVING IN WEDNESDAY – FROSTY TOO

A high starts to move in on Wednesday from the Tasman, hanging around on Thursday and starting to exit Friday out to the east.

Expect cold temperatures on Wednesday morning for the inner South Island with frosts looking reasonably likely, the chance isn’t as great on Thursday morning but it’s still possible, the Central Plateau gets quite cold on Thursday morning also.

RAINFALL OUTLOOK

Rainfall over the next seven days is going to be focused in the west and far south, in regards to the far south that’s where we need it as it’s been a bit dry there for a while. And the rain isn’t going where it’s not need which works out well to, the eastern North Island for example, it’s not to say no rain will fall there but the map below is in regards to where the bulk of what is going to fall through to Monday 27th March will be.

Most rainfall over the next seven day period will be today and tomorrow, then another front moves through later on Friday 24th into Saturday 25th bringing more rain to the West Coast.

The map below is called a “Precipitation percentage of normal” map, basically blue means higher rainfall is expected over the next seven day period above the statistical average and red means it’s looking to be drier. The darker those colours the more either extreme is true.