Weather: Wet start to school holidays expected

Photo / Dean Purcell, NZ Herald

Forecasters are predicting a wet start to the school holidays for the top of the North Island as a band of rain makes its way up the country from today.

MetService meteorologist Peter Little said the west coast of the South Island would be the first hit with rain later today, but it was northern cities like Gisborne and Auckland where the wet weather would stick around.

"We have this trough which is moving onto the South Island today, that begins to move onto the North Island tomorrow."

The trough will bring rain, which was predicted to settle over the north of the North Island.

"Unfortunately for Auckland it does look like a fairly wet start to the school holidays -- it looks like Saturday is going to be a fairly wet day with fairly cloudy skies."

Mr Little said by Sunday conditions should be drier.

He had good news for rugby fans -- the front would pass over the lower North Island and a ridge would move in, meaning the weather should clear up in time for the Super Rugby final in Wellington.

Waterlogged Whanganui had more rain on the way, Mr Little said, but the amount expected was not worrying.

"It's very sodden so any rain has the potential to ... not really help the situation," he said.

"At this stage we're not really expecting there to be huge amounts of rain."

Mr Little said the rain was forecast to pass over Whanganui before stalling further north.

"There could be 25 to 40mm of rain about northern parts of Whanganui which by normal standards isn't a lot of rain but because they're so sodden it has the potential to cause problems."

Philip Duncan of WeatherWatch described the weather passing over the country as a "narrow band of rain" similar to the conditions which caused flooding in the lower North Island two weekends ago but said this time it was not likely to have such a huge impact.

"It's got very similar hallmarks but we're hoping it will not be a repeat. It's looking like it's going to break apart a bit more as it moves into Whanganui and it also looks like it's not going to last as long.

"So, we're not as concerned but it's still one to watch."

Mr Duncan said river levels were likely to rise in the area again but more flooding was unlikely.

"The weather doesn't usually repeat itself as specifically as that."