KEY POINTS:
Heavy rain and snow look likely to continue plaguing the country through the weekend, and the MetService says conditions are unlikely to improve next week.
"I wish I could say there was a ridge of high pressure coming and it was all going to be fine, but Mother Nature doesn't seem to be that kind to us at the moment," forecaster Andy Downs said.
He stopped short of calling the conditions a storm, saying they were more a continuation of the week's unsettled weather, but said flooding and slips were a possibility in areas of the North Island already affected by heavy rain in the last few weeks.
"Those slips could be just about anywhere where we've had persistent showers and rain from Wellington to Northland," Mr Downs said.
Auckland also looked unlikely to escape the bad weather.
"Auckland's right smack, bang in this area of getting continuous showers. You might just see the sun for a bit in between showers, but more often than not there'll be quite of lot of cloud coming through and some of those showers are going to be quite heavy and squally, with the odd thunderstorm too."
Snow warnings were last night in place for the Central Plateau, and snow was likely to continue down to 900m until late today and possibly tomorrow.
Mr Downs said there was a high probability the Desert Rd would be closed again, after icy conditions forced its closure yesterday.
He advised motorists to check road warnings before travelling, but said the biggest concern was rain forecast for western and central areas of the North Island.
"There's a continuation of this theme of heavy, squally showers and maybe thunderstorms.
"Ordinarily they wouldn't be anything of any concern because the amounts we're looking at may be only 30mm to 50mm.
"But given that everything's so saturated and the catchments are so full, then it has potential consequences."
