Don’t dry on our rain parade

August has been a wet month — but whether it has been Auckland’s worst for consecutive days with rain will come down to whether rain continues to fall until Wednesday.

The rain trend continued yesterday and rain is also on the cards for today and tomorrow, marking 27 days in a row.

But whether it will reach 28 days — Auckland’s record of consecutive days of rain — remains up in the air.

MetService shift meteorologist Frances Russell said more isolated showers were expected in Auckland over the next two days but fine weather was expected for Wednesday.

“It looks like it’s going to be dry.”

The break in rain would be should-lived with isolated showers expected to return on Thursday.

But Friday looked fine. Meanwhile, there was a severe weather watch in place for central New Zealand from this morning.

The front moved over the South Island yesterday before heading to the North Island, bringing with it strong northwesterly winds and heavy rain in Marlborough and Wellington between 6am and 10am. The strong winds could also cause havoc in the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa until 6pm today.

Waikato and Bay of Plenty could also expect rain early this week, while there was a heavy rain watch for the ranges of Buller early this morning and between 4am and 10am in the Tararua Range.

Russell said heavy rain could also strike Southern Westland and Fiordland on Thursday as a front approached the South Island.

Meanwhile, ski bunnies hoping to make the most of the fresh snow on Mt Ruapehu were unlikely to see much of a break in the rain and wind.

“It looks like all days have the potential for showers. Wednesday is probably one of the better forecasts with some high cloud about, but also there’s a potential drizzle below 1600 metres,” Russell said.