Thursday is a brief ‘breather day’ before the next main burst of wintry southerlies hits the lower South Island, then spreads up the island for the remainder of Friday and then nationwide overnight and into Saturday.

The weekend isn’t overly wet but rain and showers will linger on Saturday in the upper and eastern North Island and also the lower South Island (Southland/Fiordland).

Next week, an enormous high dominates New Zealand’s weather pattern.

Over in the US, Hurricane Michael not only intensified rapidly overnight but it also sped up, making landfall earlier than forecast and also much stronger. Michael was almost Cat 5 when it made landfall near Panama City around dawn NZT on Thursday. We show you the rain radar images as it made landfall.