A forecaster is warning the top of the North Island to brace for heavy downpours, strong winds and potential flooding this week.
Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll says a hybrid low-pressure system - made up of one now sitting west of Tasmania and another by the Solomon Islands, which will contribute tropical moisture into the system - will hit the South Island tomorrow before the North Island on Thursday.
“It does look like the weather is going to go downhill as we go into Wednesday and then especially Thursday,” Noll said.
🌴 Aotearoa/New Zealand will be "visited" by the tropics later this week, but it won't be as pleasant as it sounds!
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) July 18, 2023
💧 It will come in the form of a slow-moving, heavy rain/wind band for Northland & parts of Auckland+Coromandel on Thursday night-Friday 🌬️
Big waves too! 🌊 pic.twitter.com/sQgMG84skK
The worst of the weather is expected to strike as the Fifa Women’s World Cup begins.
MetService’s rain radar shows rain intensifying in Auckland from around 9pm on Thursday - just two hours after New Zealand and Norway kick off in the opening match of the tournament.
Here's a preview of the coming week...
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) July 16, 2023
After a fairly quiet Mon-Tue, heavy rain 🌧️ and high-elevation snow will impact parts of the South Island during Wed-Thu.
By late in the week, more active weather may also reach the North Island, but there remains uncertainty at this time. pic.twitter.com/UIyt9j81gi
Heavy rain is expected to strike Northland on Thursday evening before moving into Auckland and, potentially, the Coromandel Peninsula.
“The intensity of the rain could be enough to cause localised, surface flooding for the likes of Northland and maybe northern Auckland,” Noll said.
“The winds will also be quite strong, I think for especially east coast areas of Northland and northern Auckland.”
MetService said it was moderately confident that warning levels of rain will fall across these regions.
Noll said the rest of the North Island will be blustery on Friday.
The silver lining was that the bad weather would begin to settle by the weekend for most but with some rain potentially lingering across eastern areas of the North Island.
Southland, Otago and Canterbury can expect rain and lower-level snowfall from tomorrow.
A front moves over southern NZ during the second half of Wednesday and Thursday morning
— MetService (@MetService) July 17, 2023
Heavy Rain Watches are in place for Fiordland and southern Westland
Cold southeasterlies behind the front could bring snow as low as 300m to Southland and Otago https://t.co/qHyE5zzql5 pic.twitter.com/5BDi7d1wkY
Heavy rain watches have been issued for Fiordland from midday tomorrow through to 3am on Thursday and for Westland south of the glaciers from 9pm tomorrow to 6am on Thursday.
Snowfall in Southland and Otago could reach as low as 300m.
“That is certainly going to be impacting some towns across the inland portions of those regions,” said Noll.
“Some snow could accumulate on the roadways in those regions, especially in the pass roads.”
Noll advised motorists to be mindful of the conditions.