Northern Tairāwhiti braces for heavy rain, strong winds overnight

Dark clouds were visible over central Gisborne on Friday as MetService issued an orange heavy rain warning for parts of the district. Photo / Anne-Marie de Bruin

A bout of bad weather for the northern parts of Tairāwhiti is not expected to dampen most of the weekend.

MetService issued an Orange heavy rain warning about 10am on Friday, which included parts of Tairāwhiti north of Ruatōria.

MetService said people in the Bay of Plenty east of Kawerau and Gisborne/Tairāwhiti north of Ruatōria should expect 70 to 100 mm of rain with peak rates of 20 to 30 mm/h overnight.

There was a minimal chance of it upgrading to a red warning.

MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said it was part of a large weather system expected to move across the country throughout Friday and into Saturday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds.

She acknowledged there was a possibility of streams and rivers rising when asked by the Gisborne Herald.

“So, with this band as it moves through some of the impacts that we could see include, as you say, those streams and rivers rising with all that water being fed through, possible surface flooding and slips.”

Drivers were asked to take care and advised to avoid low-lying areas and drive cautiously.

“While that system is moving through those driving conditions could be difficult. The system moves through relatively quickly compared to other systems that we’ve had recently, but that does mean that it delivers all of that rain in that short space of time.”

Makgabutlane said the worst weather was expected overnight Friday into Saturday.

“It looks like the heaviest rain is expected at this stage till about 6am, but we could still see further rain and into the morning for most of [the area], but especially that northern [area].”

All was not lost for weekend weather, as it was expected to clear later on Saturday.

“It looks like, from afternoon and into the evening from afternoon onwards, mostly dry conditions are expected once that main rain band has moved away.”