Heavy rain and gales on the way
Gale-force winds and heavy rain are expected to hit the North Island midweek, after a mainly fine weekend. A deepening sub-tropical low is forecast to move over the North Island from the north today before slowly moving off to the southeast. Through tomorrow and Wednesday the low is expected to move south across the North Island, bringing southeast gales and heavy rain. The MetService has issued severe weather warnings and watches. Tomorrow there is a high chance rainfall could reach warning levels over Gisborne and northern Hawke’s Bay.
There is also a 40 per cent chance of gales becoming severe about the “western slopes from East Cape to Taihape and Taranaki”.
“On Thursday, the low should move away to the southeast, bringing more settled weather,” MetService said.
A heavy rain watch is in place for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty including Rotorua and the Kaimai Range from 2pm today to early tomorrow. A strong wind watch is in place for Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Plenty from this afternoon to tomorrow morning. May was a record-breaking month for the South Island as temperatures in several areas of Otago and Southland sank to new lows. Lauder in Central Otago broke its May daily maximum air temperature record when the mercury dropped to -2.6C on May 31 — the lowest high since records began in 1924. Niwa scientist Gregor Macara said the nationwide average temperature in May was 11.2C, 0.4C above the 1981-2010 May average.
— Ryan Dunlop