Weather Watch: It's time for lip balm

This week certainly is moving in slow motion weather-wise. Our big high, that gave us that stunning weekend, is now slowly - very slowly - inching away to the east. Behind it is an area of low pressure. Nothing huge, but enough to make for a wet end to the week and probably a wet start to the weekend. I don't like slow weather systems - not only do they give me absolutely nothing to talk about (unless it's slow moving rain) but they are also tricky to forecast - especially long range.

It was great to see the warmth return this week...while the weekend was beautiful the cold was not something I was thrilled about having return. On the very same day that I packed my bedroom heater and dehumidified away I also lit the biggest fire I've had in many weeks. Churning through the "bits and pieces" left in my woodshed...I was hoping I'd have some wood left over for next season, but I think I'm at the point where I may as well just finish it off.

The windy, drier, weather is also leading to something else - cracked lips. It's that time of the year when everyone's reaching for lip balm...and as a person who has spent a few months living in Canada during winter I know that it's not unmanly to have lip balm! Over there you can't live without it...the air is SO dry you have to constantly put lip balm on. It's weird when you're a guy and you're doing that lip smacking thing - that girls do with lipstick. And it does become addictive...the feeling of soft lips is a pleasant one...cracked is not. I find myself secretly putting lip balm on when no one is looking at all times of the year. Honestly, I share way too much personal info in here.

So back to the weather - well we have our forecast for the Tri Nations test this Saturday night in Hamilton. Looks like timing will be the key on the field and up in the sky.

Also, we snapped this great picture the other day in Auckland of fog turning the Harbour Bridge into the Bridge to Nowhere. It was created when that southerly (a dry wind with little moisture for Auckland) turned nor'east (warmer and moister). Fog like this is very common around the city. Can be a bit tricky to forecast though... like, why does the fog form on only certain parts of Waitemata Harbour? There's still so much about fog forecasting that we don't yet know. After all, fog is only cloud forming on the ground...and certainly when we forecast a partly cloudy day over Auckland we usually can't tell you which suburbs the clouds will hang over...so it's quite the same with fog forecasting...but fog is so much more disruptive. It was on Tuesday too...the nor'western motorway was especially slow with a number of traffic 'incidents' lasting well after 9am.

Rain is back in the forecast again for northern and western parts of New Zealand on Friday. On Tuesday we ran a story about a possible Looming Drought. Well the upcoming rain looks like it won't make it over into eastern areas that are starting to need it. There's more bad news for those farmers in the east - another high looks set to move in across the country on Sunday or early next week. So while Gisborne and northern Hawkes Bay might get a few spits of rain over the weekend most other places look like they'll be dry.

Heavy rain warnings are also expected to be issued for western parts of the country from northern Taranaki and King Country, to the Tararuas, the Nelson ranges and the entire West Coast - according to MetService's severe weather outlook. I'll have more details on Friday.

Top: The warm, dry weather will have women - and men - everywhere reaching for their lip balm. Photo / AP