Get ready for plenty of rain

Heavy rain is forecast for the Western Bay overnight Thursday and into Friday due to a low front forming in the Tasman Sea moving down across the upper North Island.
MetService forecaster Andy Downs said the low pressure system was likely to move across the upper North Island from Thursday to Saturday, and because of strengthening easterlies associated with this system it should bring rain to much of the North Island.
"There is a moderate risk or 40 per cent likelihood of heavy rainfall reaching warning levels during Thursday and Friday in Northland, north Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula and the possibility of a lot of rain overnight Thursday and through to Friday in the ranges of Western Bay of Plenty."
Mr Downs said there was also a low risk of heavy rain in Gisborne during Friday and Saturday, and a low risk of easterly gales becoming severe in Northland and about the Hauraki Gulf during Thursday and early Friday.
He said the amount of rainfall hitting the Western Bay depended on how the front coming down from the North Tasman sea developed as it moved down across the upper North Island and the speed of the rain band as it extends down in between the large high pressure system sitting over New Zealand and the low pressure system forming. "If the front slows up as it moves down and across the upper North Island then there is a higher possibility of heavy rain picking up overnight Thursday and Friday and the Western Bay ranges is quite likely to be in the firing line," he said.
Last week 97.5mm of rain fell in the Western Bay. Mr Downs said how fast the low pressure system was moving down the upper North Island would become much clearer later today and the large high pressure system should retreat to the South Island during Thursday.
Tauranga's maximum temperature today is forecast to reach 15C, 13C tomorrow and back to 15C on Thursday.