Massive currents of smoke from Australian fires reach New Zealand

Tuesday, 31 December 2019

Satellite imagery shows smoke from bush fires drifting across the Tasman Sea.

Bushfires in Australia are spewing a massive current of smoke across the Tasman towards New Zealand, and it's likely to continue for a while.

Imagery from the Japanese weather satellite Himawari-8 shows a blanket of smoke wide enough to cover the entire South Island has been blowing our way all afternoon.

Metservice meteorologist Aidan Pyselman said they had been tracking the smoke for several weeks since the fires began.

Bushfire smoke from Australia is blowing across the Tasman Sea towards the South Island.

'It's off and on, when we get a particular setup with the way the upper winds are it tends to come across. We haven't had it consistently but at the moment we've got a front moving on to the South Island.'

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'It's been happening for quite some time since the Aussie bushfires have been going. At the moment it's definitely more noticeable, especially over the South Island,' he said.

People in the South Island may notice a light haze up high in the sky, even in fine weather.

The smoke wouldn't have any impact on weather or temperatures in New Zealand, Pseylman said.

'It's only a really thin haze, temperatures are pretty warm but it's not really anything to do with that.'

Winds will continue to push smoke towards New Zealand for the next few days, but wind directions should change around he said.

'It will probably peter out. At the moment its coming across on norwesterly flow, but later in the week the winds will be more souwesterly, so we probably won't see as much.'