Northern and western parts of New Zealand are expected to be hit by heavy rain and high winds as a tropically-charged low pressure front descends over the country.
High winds and heavy rain will hit parts of the country today. Photo: RNZ / MARIKA KHABAZI
Residents in northern and western parts of the country are being warned to prepare for heavy rain, which MetService says could cause surface flooding and slips from the early hours of tomorrow morning.
A heavy snow warning is also in place for the Canterbury high country south of the Rangitata River, with rain expected to turn to snow above about 400 metres for a time tomorrow morning.
Heavy rain warnings are in place for:
- Bay of Plenty east of Opotiki, and the ranges of Gisborne north of Ruatoria, from 6am - 10pm Friday, 8 July
- Mount Taranaki, from 1am - 2pm Friday, 8 July
- Tasman west of Motueka, from 2am - 11am Friday, 8 July
- The ranges of Westland south of Otira, from 5am Friday, 8 July until 3pm Saturday, 9 July
A heavy snow watch is also in place for the Queenstown Lakes District, where significant falls are expected above 700m.
South Taranaki, inland Whanganui and Taihape could see northerly winds approaching severe gale in exposed places from early tomorrow and heavy rain is also expected from this afternoon and into tomorrow in Tongariro National Park, Buller and Westland (north of Otira), Northland, Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua and Bay of Plenty (around and west of Opotiki).
"This could be a significant weather event, and people are advised to keep up-to-date with the latest forecasts as some of the watches are likely to be upgraded to Warnings," MetService announced on its website.
"Also, more areas will probably be added to the watch or warning."
On Tuesday, MetService meteorologist Peter Little told Morning Report that it was looking like a "really wet end of the week", particularly for northern and western parts of the country.
Parts of Australia's eastern seaboard have suffered extreme flooding over the past week and while Little said it wasn't inevitable that Australia's weather systems would move on to New Zealand, many did travel from west to east.
"This is just another one of those lows that has moved across the Tasman, it's not uncommon."