Heavy rain set to last until weekend

ALL-WEATHER: Despite the heavy shower, St Patrick's School pupil Luke Rogers can still manage a smile during the school's reliable patrol crossing duty on Chapel St yesterday.PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

Don't leave home without your raincoat or gumboots for the rest of this week.

Weather forecasters say the steady rain which started overnight Sunday is here to stay until the end of the week with no sunshine expected before the weekend.

MetService weather forecaster Richard Finnie said Wairarapa would be spared most of the rainfall expected in Northland and the Bay of Plenty where weather warnings had been issued but steady rain was going to be hanging around for most of the week.

An easterly flow crossing the North Island is responsible for the wet week ahead.

By yesterday afternoon some gutters on Masterton streets were beginning to flood with water building up.

Today and tomorrow would bring the wettest days for Masterton, Mr Finnie said.

"There is going to be a fair bit of rain for the week. It will be raining off and on which will become more persistent on Wednesday and Thursday. The rain will be steady but [Wairarapa] won't get the same amount of rainfall expected in Auckland, Northland, the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty ... there will be some heavy rainfall though ... a cold winter week. "

While some rain could still hang around on Friday, things were expected to improve over the weekend with some sunshine by Sunday, Mr Finnie said.

"There will still be a little rain around on Friday but by Saturday it should have started to fine up with a clear day expected on Sunday."