A pleasant walk in Christchurch’s Botanical Gardens recently. Photo / Jonathan Weatherall.
Here’s some news that will make many happy – warm weather is set to return for a number of populated places towards the end of this week and through the weekend with highs reaching the lower 20s.
A deep and large low in the Southern Ocean will drive in winds from the northerly quarter starting tomorrow and lasting though until Sunday or Monday.
The northern side of the deep low will stretch right up to the northern Tasman Sea shifting warmer air down over northern and north eastern parts of the North Island. On Saturday daytime highs will reach between 18 and 22 degrees across these regions. Auckland is expected to reach 20.
Eastern areas of the South Island and lower North Island will also have a return to warmer weather with strong to gale nor’westers helping boost temperatures from the single digits earlier this week to the late teens by Friday or Saturday. It’s possible that some parts of Canterbury may also reach 20 degrees.
Overnight lows will remain lower for the next few nights but by the weekend are also expected to rise. No frosts are predicted by WeatherWatch.co.nz anywhere this weekend.
On Monday a colder south west flow will spread up New Zealand however the weather isn’t forecast to be severe. It could mean another cold week on the way for many regions next week with Bay of Plenty, Rotorua and Northland looking to be the sunniest, warmest and driest places.
Meanwhile day 6 of our 7 day low shows conditions starting to ease in many areas. The low is still affecting some parts of New Zealand with showers and cold winds over the lower half of the South Island and another band of heavy showers moving in to western and inland parts of the North Island.
At the time of this update (9:40am) the heaviest showers were between Manawatu and King Country, heading towards Central Plateau and Waikato and possibly just brushing Auckland.
Some of these showers may be heavy with isolated small hail. A rumble of thunder is also possible around King Country and western Central Plateau.
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SW on 13/05/2009 2:59am
Bring on the NW the more northerly the better,We need a bit of a break in Auckland to get things done outside.
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Derek on 13/05/2009 12:50am
Beaut day so far up here in Whangarei, been blue sky and sun all day so far with temp reaching 20deg here at home.
The heavy rain forecast for us here last evening did not eventuate in our part of town but as these rain squalls have been very localised maybe other parts did get it.
Would the WW team have any ideas of what could be in store for us over the coming winter, am reading reports of a wetter than usual winter, we had a very wet winter last year with ground absolutely saturated, so to be any wetter than usual this time we are going to be in flood mode.
Great weather news on all that is happening right now, extremely informative and very accurate, thanks for the work you put into it.
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WW Forecast Team on 13/05/2009 1:12am
Hi Derek,
Thanks for the feedback – much appreciated.
Our predictions for winter are for a wet winter for northern and western regions. At this rate eastern parts of the South Island may also have a wet winter.
We don’t see any "extreme" weather patterns however severe systems – such as the two storms last July – are just as likely this year as they were last year.
Whangarei should get a chance to dry out and warm up (already started warming up!) over the few days with little to no rain in the forecast until Sunday night/Monday morning, then clearing for much of next week.
WeatherWatch Team
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Derek on 13/05/2009 2:41am
Thanks for that, can prepare by building an ark maybe??
Great or next few days so I may be able to wash car etc. Good stuff.
Thankyou.
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Mandeno Moments on 12/05/2009 11:55pm
Around 1130 we had 15-30 minutes of wind that went to force 7 or 8, accompanied by rain that was small in quantity but very large in droplet size. It was definitely wild for a bit.
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