WeatherWatch: Heavy rain, snow and thunderstorms

Rain, driven in by an easterly flow, is predicted for the entire eastern coastline of the North Island. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Opinion

The unsettled and relatively mild weather is continuing across New Zealand this week with more heavy rain, snow and thunderstorms in the forecast.

On Monday MetService said a number of regions may be affected by severe weather from Wednesday to Saturday this week. While confidence of warnings is low at this stage that is probably mostly due to the fact that the system is still a number of days away.

According to the latest computer models a low is again predicted to form in the northern Tasman Sea around mid-week, deepening off the Northland coast.

Rain, driven in by an easterly flow, is predicted for the entire eastern coastline of the North Island - Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, East Cape, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa.

A brief cold snap is also being predicted by MetService for Southland with snow to low levels.

The weather pattern continues to keep much of New Zealand frost free, particularly the North Island.

The shortest day, (Winter Solstice) which was on Monday at 11:28pm, usually indicates the start of the coldest weather however at the moment it appears the trend of warmer conditions will continue for the majority of New Zealanders.

Over the weekend temperatures hit as high as 18, 19 and 20 degrees in Northland, Bay of Plenty and Canterbury (thanks to a nor'wester).

Colder weather will still be on the way as we head deeper in to winter - but for those of you who don't enjoy the colder weather you can at least look forward to more sunlight. While the next few weeks will be similar some may start to notice the ever so slightly longer days as early as mid July.

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