Rain for the weekend in Tauranga

Wet weather dominated the Bay of Plenty Wednesday and Thursday causing flooding near Pongakawa. PHOTO/JOHN BORREN

Heavy rain drenched the Bay of Plenty this week, with more wet weather forecast this weekend.

The Kaimai Ranges got the brunt of the weather, recording about 85mm of rain overnight on Wednesday.

Between 30mm and 40mm was recorded at Te Puke and Tauranga Airport.

Police appealed to the public on Wednesday and yesterday to avoid any unnecessary travel in the Bay of Plenty region with numerous reports of slips and flooding.

Surface water had still not receded on State Highway 2 near Pongakawa yesterday afternoon.

MetService Meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said the wet weather would hold off for most of today with cloud increasing this afternoon but would be back this weekend.

"Rain could develop again on Saturday with a chance of heavy falls, thunder and a chance of strong northerlies. It's pretty likely there would be thunder storms in quite a number of areas over the weekend."

The wet weather would be caused by a low pressure system developing in the Tasman, he said.

Temperatures
Thursday: Max 19C, min 11C
Fri: Max 17C, min 8C
Sat: Max 18C, min 12C
Sun: Max 18C, min 11C