Stormy weather will impact parts of New Zealand in the new week with severe gales in both islands, pockets of heavy rain and heavy snow and a wintry temperature drop for the lower South Island in particular.

WeatherWatch.co.nz – Main Highlights for incoming weather:

• Rain or showers will linger across eastern portions of the North Island Sunday.
• The leading edge of rain associated with an active cold front will approach from the Tasman Sea on Sunday and will reach Fiordland.
• Rain will intensify and spread into the West Coast Monday as well as strong northwesterly winds.
• The storm will shift to upper South Island and central New Zealand on Tuesday.
• Rainfall amounts are likely to be around 80-100 mm across the West Coast and Fiordland on Monday, 30-50 mm in the east & lower North Island and the upper South Island on Tuesday. So locally bigger totals are possible.
• Alpine areas of the South Island will receive snowfall of 15-20 cm from Monday to Tuesday.
• Damaging wind gusts of 80 km/h to 100 km/h are also expected in some locations across the lower North Island and the upper South Island on Monday.
• Damaging winds from the south to south west are also possible on Wednesday in coastal Canterbury, especially Banks Peninsula with gusts over 100km/h possible.
• Low pressure moving in across NZ will deepen while moving slowly eastwards through Wednesday. As the low deepens winds increase behind it.
• Heavy rain and strong south to southwesterly winds will occur across Southland and Otago Tuesday before spreading northwards along the east coast of the South Island Wednesday where that damaging portion in coastal areas of Canterbury comes from (and possibly coastal Otago for a time).
• Rainfall amounts of 50-80 mm could impact already wet parts of the lower South Island.
• Temperatures will be above to well above normal across New Zealand through Monday while some portions, especially eastern parts of the country, will experience cooler than normal nighttime temperatures.
• Temperatures will plunge significantly into well below normal from Tuesday with single digit highs in some places in the south of NZ and then single digit overnight lows across much of New Zealand.
• Minimum temperatures may drop to near freezing in some portions of the lower South Island.
• Of the 6 largest centres in NZ: Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington are most exposed to severe weather for a time.
• Auckland, Tauranga and Hamilton least impacted, although Auckland City may have westerly gusts just reaching into gale force for a time on Tuesday afternoon and perhaps Wednesday too in western coastal areas.

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