MetService National weather: February 28th-March 1st
Finally, some respite for the North Island - relatively dry days are forecast for the rest of the week - and one forecaster is promising 10 days of sunshine.
It comes as another round of heavy rain causes more strife on the island’s east coast, with “severe flooding” and evacuations in Gisborne and at least two major highways closed - including State Highway 5 into Napier.
But MetService meteorologist Andrew James said the fresh deluges there last night and today marked the “end of this wet spell ... for now.”
James said, “things are looking a lot better now than even this morning.
“For the next few hours, Wairoa and Gisborne districts are still under [orange heavy rain] warnings, but then after that, there’s a broad, easing trend as a front brings clearer weather,” he said.
For the next few days in cyclone-ravaged Gisborne, showers today should give way to fine conditions with partly cloudy spells before rain returns on Sunday.
Private forecaster Weather Watch said the next ten days “lean drier - not wetter [for hard-hit regions], perhaps the most positive weather forecast these places have seen [this year].”
Hawke’s Bay should get much of the same, with fine days lasting until Sunday, MetService forecast. Coromandel should also enjoy some fine weather.
In Auckland, meanwhile, the worst weather this week is likely to be a few partly cloudy days, but conditions should remain mainly fine with temperatures sitting around 24C until next Monday.
“It is a decent dry spell for the North Island to the end of the weekend,” James said.
MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said a front was expected to “weaken and move away from the country [this morning], taking the rain and the thunderstorms with it.
And while dry weather comes for North Island, the opposite is true for the South Island.
“A series of fronts will bring some rain to southern and western parts of the South Island in the second half of the week,” Loots said.
“This comes on the back of a much drier than usual summer for many in [those] parts of the country.”
These forecasts come after evacuations and road closures in Gisborne today as drains and creeks filled with water and surface flooding inundated a “whole” town.
Evacuations in Gisborne after latest deluge
Civil defence officials in Gisborne said a “number of properties” have been evacuated in the suburb of Mangapapa.
Police moved door-to-door, with an evacuation centre set up at the House of Breakthrough on Potae Ave.
“There is severe surface flooding for the whole of the Mangapapa. Fire and Emergency have closed roads in and around the areas from Lytton High School to Winter St,” Civil Defence said.
“It was up to our knees. It is slowly draining away but our house is a little raised so we are very lucky.”
Mangapapa resident Matt Dawson said the situation in the area was very serious last night, with many evacuations throughout the night.
“Surf life-saving boats were deployed. The water was very high. The water has subsided but drains are blocked causing more flooding.”
Kory Moorcock tried to evacuate from his Shelley Rd home but couldn’t get far because a bridge was flooded.
Moorcock told the Herald he was woken up at 3.30am by non-stop downpours, he looked outside and the water was up to his front door, two metres higher than what the creek usually runs at.
Gisborne resident Helen Amanda's Ormond Rd property flooded this morning. Photo / Helen Amanda
“It is pretty crazy. When Hale came it was halfway up from our doors, a metre above the banks; the last cyclone water didn’t come up, and this time it’s just bad.
“We tried to evacuate, but the bridge to get to town was underwater. There is no way to get a vehicle out there.
“It feels like you don’t get a break.”
Keep off the roads - Civil Defence
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence is asking people to keep off the roads if possible, with surface flooding in several parts of the region.
A section of State Highway 5 - the Napier to Taupō Road - has slipped away near Te Pōhue, north of Eskdale.
“Avoid driving through any floodwaters. Keep off the roads if possible. If you are out on the road, drive to the conditions and expect delays and hazards.”
Further north on the coast, State Highway 35 between Ruatoria to Tikitiki was closed shortly after 7pm on Monday due to flooding, leaving Tokomaru Bay cut off once again. Some local residents have described hearing particularly heavy downpours from about 2am.
The new wave of heavy rain comes as the newest tropical cyclone in the Pacific has been named, but forecasters expect it to pass by New Zealand without “major impact” as parts of the North Island recover from deadly Cyclone Gabrielle.
Fiji’s MetService named the weather system Tropical Cyclone Judy yesterday as it sat north of Vanuatu - just as authorities here extended states of emergency around the North Island.
