“There’s a little bit of rain for Fiordland on Sunday but it doesn’t make it very far up the country. It’s not until we get until Tuesday, Wednesday when we have another front come in from the southwest which will spread rain across the South Island before reaching the North Island in the middle of next week.
“The good news with that is that the front weakens as it runs up the country so by the time it crosses the country while it will be some unwelcome rain it should just be a short, brief period.”
Ferris said across the weekend and into next week it should feel summery in the north.
“It doesn’t really look until that Wednesday period that widespread rain will occur over the North Island.”
“It’s all good news in that regard.”
Auckland could expect to see days of temperatures reaching around a balmy 25C.
Niwa Weather said the fine weather this weekend could see sunny skies overhead for the remainder of the month bringing the first decent summery spell for the storm-ravaged North Island.
Forecaster WeatherWatch.co.nz said hot temperatures were expected to return to the eastern South Island on Sunday with the mercury set to tip into the 30s.
“Expect highs in the late twenties for the eastern South Island, perhaps even the early thirties in spots. The North Island has very nice temperatures also but a little more pleasant staying in the mid twenties,” the forecaster said.
Ferris said it was now so dry in the South Island that some southern parts were potentially facing their driest summer on record.
Ferris said this summer and this past month had been particularly unusual in terms of the severity of rain and adverse weather.
“We don’t expect all summers to look like this and unlikely to have a run of summers like this.
Once February was finished it was very likely a number of rainfall records would fall, including Whangarei.
He said the northern city had “absolutely smashed” its summer rainfall record with more than a metre of rain since December, almost doubling the previous 600 mm record.
