Santa will have to bring an umbrella to Rotorua this Christmas - it's likely to be raining right up until the New Year.
With the remnants of Cyclone Evan, the storm system that caused the deaths of five people in Samoa, coming southwards to New Zealand tomorrow, it's looking like
rain for most of the holiday season.
A severe weather watch was issued by Metservice yesterday, warning of the possibility of bursts of very heavy rain and strong easterly gales tomorrow and Monday.
Forecaster Philippa Murdoch said today would bring patchy drizzle, but it would be mostly fine with high cloud.
Tomorrow the cloud would be increasing and rain would begin to develop as the ex-tropical cyclone came down from the north of the country.