If you know the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ then the reference to repetition makes sense – if you don’t know the movie, basically every morning you wake up to the same song on the radio and the same weather outside.

Over the next 7 full days this may be the case (at least weather-wise!) for many in the North Island and some in the South Island as a slow moving weather system moves in.

Dubbed a “squash zone” by WeatherWatch.co.nz, it highlights the area between a powerful high pressure zone to NZ’s east and a noticeable low pressure zone in the northern Tasman Sea. This squash zone of mainly Nor’East winds has already started to blow in the upper NorthI Island and will linger until at least Thursday of next week (Feb 2).

The winds are mostly being created by the powerful high being centred so far away from the North and South Islands. This high will move around a bit – and as it drifts back a little towards the North Island this weekend it may help conditions ease back for a time, especially the second half of the long weekend. But next week, as that high starts to depart again to the east, it could see another surge of wind and rain by Tuesday.

Squash zone events are different from ‘storms’ or ‘deep lows’ that move in, which bring swirling gales from multiple directions and the rain and wind can be disconnected from each other sometimes. With squash zone events, the windiest and wettest weather often coincides and lingers for days in a similar flow.

As always, to make sense of all the maps and data view your hourly and 10 day forecasts at WeatherWatch.co.nz and RuralWeather.co.nz (great for camping), also our next weather video will be out around noon today and goes into detail about the upcoming Anniversary Weekend weather for both Auckland (upper North Island) and Nelson too.

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Wind GUST Maps…