11am Update

Rain clouds are clearing over the North Island as we head into the afternoon.  As of 11am a band of rain over Northland was almost completely offshore but a band of isolated heavy showers will be moving in across Northland over the next few hours.

There are few showers and drizzle patches moving over the ranges across the eastern North Island but apart from that skies are mostly clearing. 

In the South Island some showers are brushing Southland and Stewart Island.  They aren’t expected to get any worse.

As the day progresses cloudy skies are likely to give way to sunny, dry, weather.

Earlier Story

Two words sum up this weekend:  ‘Hot’ and ‘Sunny’.  That’s the latest national forecast from the Weather Watch Centre today as a large high moves in from the Tasman giving the nation yet another weekend of summer weather.

“Just about all regions will have hot, still, dry and sunny weather this weekend” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.  “Whether you’re having a Christmas Party, heading to the beach, out on the boat or firing up the barbie, this weekend looks set to be an outdoors one”.

Of course with a country that is well known for having changeable conditions the forecast isn’t perfectly straight forward.  “There could be some lingering early showers across East Cape on Saturday and some coastal cloud in eastern areas.  By Sunday a front approaching the South Island’s west coast will move cloud in and northerlies are going to pick up in the south and east of the South Island”.

But Mr Duncan says most towns and cities will have mainly settled weekend.

The Weather Watch Centre says temperatures should lie between 18 and 25 with the majority of regions in the lower 20s.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST

The forecast for Friday is pretty much dry in the South and wet in the North.  A ridge of high pressure is already pushing over the South Island while a weak front moves up the North Island. 

Western areas of the North Island will have patchy rain, showers or drizzle at some period during the day with most of it clearing during the afternoon or evening.  With morning heat and high humidity in northern areas, especially central areas like Rotorua and Bay of Plenty, there may be some heavy showers during the afternoon. 

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More Updates!

We’ve taken on board the feedback we received recently so we’re upping our updates!  We’re aiming to have at least 3 updates on our ‘quiet’ days.  Early morning, around Noon and again in the late afternoon.

Of course don’t forget to check back at other times throughout the day in case we have special updates – due to afternoon thunderstorms, sudden downpours, or perhaps big temperatures…and in Summer that’s highly likely!

And remember during any special weather event we can update as often as once an hour – no matter what the time of day.

WeatherWatch.co.nz is your breaking weather news authority.

Your Comments/Photos

Throughout the day and evening we’ll post your comments and photos that are sent through to us.

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Countdown to Christmas!

In 2 weeks and 6 days Christmas 2008 will be upon us!  We’ll begin our first Christmas Day Weather Forecast on December 15th…and our first New Year’s Eve forecast the following week, December 22nd. 

While forecasting 10 days out from an event certainly isn’t perfect you can watch as we follow the latest weather models for those two important days and fine tune our forecasts to be as bang on as possible.