Gales, downpours hit - and hang around

Tuesday, 20 August 2019

Intense rain and strong winds will start moving up the country today as a weather system brings stormy weather for the rest of the week.

'The general picture is it's going to be wet, particularly on the West Coast of the South Island, and it's going to be windy, particularly in the eastern parts,' Metservice meteorologist Andrew James said. 

A front would bring heavy rain for the west of the South Island, 'and some rain over the other side of the ranges into the Canterbury and Otago headwaters as well'.

MetService had heavy rain warnings in place for Westland and Fiordland, and strong wind warnings for Canterbury High Country and Fiordland. There were also a number of weather watches in place for heavy rain in areas west of Nelson, the ranges of Buller, and headwaters around the South Island.

Snow was forecast to fall in the South Island's alpine passes, with MetService issuing a warning for the Lindis Pass, Crown Range Road and Milford Road.

Dunedin was forecast to reach just 11 degrees Celsius, with strong northeasteries and afternoon rain. Christchurch would see high cloud and strong westerlies, a high of 15C and some patchy rain later in the evening. Wellington would have a chilly maximum of 12C, while Auckland would be relatively fine and reach 15C.

'After this front goes through and moves onto the North Island, in behind that front is quite a large and complicated low pressure system which will bring wind and rain to many parts of New Zealand', James said.

Temperature wise, Masterton had the coldest temperature of the morning, as low as -5 degrees Celsius, but the rest of the country was significantly warmer than Monday. 

'The picture for the week is basically that [Monday] was the best day and now we are gradually deteriorating,' James said.  

'The reason yesterday was so cold is that it was clear at night, and there was already a cold air mass with no cloud cover and not much wind. But now it's going to be windy and cloudy so it won't be able to get as cold at night.'