Storm warnings ahead

By Matthew Theunissen

Several severe weather warnings were issued yesterday as a cold front looks set to put a dampener on summer.

The MetService said rain and wind would be common today as the front moves up New Zealand.

It has issued heavy rain warnings for Fiordland, the Tararua Ranges and Mount Taranaki, and a severe wind warning for inland Canterbury.

Severe weather watches are in place for Waitomo, Taumarunui, Taihape, Hawke’s Bay, Tararua, Wairarapa, Taranaki, Whanganui, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Buller, Westland, Fiordland, Christchurch, the Canterbury Plains, central Otago, the Southern Lakes, Southland and Stewart Island.

MetService meteorologist April Clark said the front was bringing north-westerly winds so temperatures wouldn’t be low — and Napier and Hastings were forecast to hit 30C today.

“We expect the front to move over the North Island on Sunday and bring a period of rain for areas, mainly in the west of the North Island. It’ll probably be more cloudy with a few scattered showers for those eastern areas.”

The weather was expected to settle down for most places by midnight and Monday was expected to be mostly fine, with a few isolated showers in the west of the North Island and possibly patchy showers in the South Island’s west.

Tuesday would see cloudy periods in the west of the North Island but fine in the east, and the South Island would continue to get rain over its west coast. But then it may be time to batten down the hatches again.

On Wednesday, a front similar to this weekend’s was expected to make itself known, with more unsettled weather to follow.