Nelson in the eye of the storm as South Island battered

The Nelson Tasman region has missed out on the harsh weather battering the South Island due to being in ‘‘the centre of the storm’’.

As regions in the lower south get declared states of emergency, Nelson and the Tasman remains protected from the bad weather by its surrounding ranges.

Metservice forecaster Tuporo Marsters said while a lot of the country was getting near 100mls of rain, Nelson only had a total of 8.4mls over the last 24 hours.

‘‘Some places were getting close to 200mls.’’

Heavy downfalls on Friday afternoon battered the south. Darfield received 127mls while Oamaru was lashed with 163mls of rain.

‘‘Good old Nelson missed the brunt of the weather.’’

He said Nelson was in the centre of the storm while ‘‘around the edges, everybody was copping the weather’’.

Marsters said the other ‘‘interesting thing’’ was that the Nelson Tasman region had relatively calm winds with gusts picking up mid afternoon yesterday as the region was ‘‘copping the edge’’ of the storm.

‘‘You guys are the centre of the storm but not getting the rain.

‘‘You missed the brunt of the storm basically.’’

The weather was classed as ‘‘similar to a cyclone’’, he said.

Going forward the weather is set to improve.

Marsters said the region was ‘‘lucky’’ as it was expected to get fine spells and southerlies developing this morning.

‘‘You guys do good in a southerly.’’ Calm before new storm, p4