Areas surrounding the East Cape are set to bear the brunt of the wet and windy weather, especially on Saturday and Sunday, but most of the North Island will see rain at times during the long weekend, he says.
The low is also expected to bring wet weather to Hawke’s Bay.
“While the low pressure stays nearby through the weekend, it will feed rain on to the East Coast with the potential for some periods of heavy rain.
“Strong winds will surround the low pressure and we are forecasting blustery conditions around eastern and central regions of the North Island, especially on Saturday.”
For this region, some might be hoping for moisture, with data showing only 20 percent of normal rainfall for the month.
The rain total for Gisborne as of yesterday was just shy of 30 millimetres — the 30-year average (1991-2020) is 93mm.
With clear skies, the amount of sunshine is up by about 110 percent of normal, but the downside is clear nights have lowered 24-hour temperature averages.
Overall, March is running about a degree cooler than usual, matched by the water temperature off the beaches.
The latest sea temperature is around 18.8 degrees. The March average is 19.8.
Tuesday’s daytime air temperature hit a warm 26.9 but the all-time March high was a sweltering 35.1 degrees on March 10, 1983 — a strong El Nino year.
