Your weather: Warm and dry for most before front moves onto South Island

NZ Herald

1 Apr, 2018 05:19 PM4 mins to read

The worst of the weather is forecast to hit the South Island's west coast today. Image / Metservice

Warm and dry weather today for most of the country tops off a cracker Easter weekend.

It was beach and barbeque time in northern and eastern hotspots over much of the weekend with packed beaches from Northland through the Bay of Plenty round to the East Coast.

Yesterday's places to be were Kawerau, which hit 25C, and Kaitaia on 24C.

On Saturday the East Coast was the stand-out, where Gisborne and Napier reached 27C and full sunshine.

The South Island's east coast also came to the party. Christchurch topped the country on 28C before a southerly change dropped yesterday's high to 18C.

As a front sweeps up the South Island tomorrow heavy rain returns to lower western coast. This front is forecast to weaken dramatically before moving onto the North Island on Tuesday. Will this front affect you? Check at https://t.co/hnwmGxU1gR ^AC pic.twitter.com/M4awfcTGQC
— MetService (@MetService) April 1, 2018

Fiordland and Westland received the brunt of the bad weekend weather, and severe rain warnings are in place today, Metservice meteorologist Stephen Glassey said.

"All of the action today is on the South Island's West Coast," Glassey said.

A series of fronts embedded in a moist northwest flow are expected to move northwards over the South Island today and tomorrow.

Periods of heavy rain are expected about and west of the main divide early this morning until Tuesday morning.

In southern Westland up to 180mm could fall from 9am this morning to 9am Tuesday, and in Fiordland 90mm could accumulate by 3pm today, before another burst of up to 50mm Tuesday morning. Thunderstorms are also possible.

"Some rain may spread over to the East Coast, but not much," Glassey said.

The North Island is under a ridge of high pressure, and is in for a warm and dry day with some high cloud in western areas but clear skies in the east.

Tropical Cyclone Josie formed last night to the southwest of Fiji. As you can see from the infrared satellite below, it is not currently well-organised.

Josie should strengthen slightly in the next 36 hours, but remain a Category 1 storm.

Josie is NOT expected to threaten NZ. pic.twitter.com/WM7VuDNkWw
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) April 1, 2018

There may be the odd shower around some of the ranges, but these should fall away from areas people are driving.

Tomorrow some showers may move into southwestern parts of the North Island as the weakening front moves north.

From Wednesday a westerly flow forms over the country, bringing some showers to western parts in both main islands, before a ridge builds into Thursday.

"It looks like there should be quite a bit of fine weather around the country this week," Glassey said.

On Friday another weakening front moves onto the South island, while the North Island stays under a ridge of high pressure.

North of New Zealand Tropical Cyclone Josie developed near Fiji on Saturday night, bringing heavy rain and strong wind causing major flooding in parts of the country.

#TCJosie has caused widespread flooding in the western parts of Fiji's main island- Viti Levu. Thoughts and prayers with all those directly affected. We're stronger 💪 than #TCJosie ! #Fiji #NadiTown #Nadi pic.twitter.com/aXiM7VbdmB
— Nazeem-Kasim (@KasimMNazeem) April 1, 2018

The Fiji Metservice forecasts the system to remain category 1, and track southeast over the next few days.

Glassey said it was expected to stay "well to the east of New Zealand".