Heavy rain warnings for Nelson and Tasman as clean-up continues

Heavy rain in some areas last week resulted in widespread flooding, slips and road closures. Photo / RNZ

By RNZ

MetService has issued new orange heavy rain warnings for the already sodden Nelson and Tasman districts.

The warning for Tasman, west of Motueka, runs from 3am Thursday to 9pm, and anticipates 120 to 150mm of rain, with more possible around the coast.

The warning for the remainder of the district, as well as the Nelson District, Richmond and Bryant Ranges including the Rai Valley, and the Marlborough Sounds, is from 6am to 9pm on Thursday, and forecasts 80 to 100mm of rain about the Sounds and ranges.

More than 300mm of rain fell in some areas late last week, leading to widespread flooding, slips and road closures.

Two localised states of emergency remain in place as the clean-up continues.

Community meetings will take place on Tuesday in Tapawera and Wakefield.

MetService also had a heavy rain warning in place for Bay of Plenty, west of Whakatāne from 8am on Thursday until 3am on Friday, with up to 120mm of rain forecast.

The MetService has orange heavy rain warnings in place for the Tasman and Nelson districts for a large part of Thursday. Photo / MetService

Cold starts

On Tuesday morning parts of the South Island woke up to freezing temperatures.

At about 6am Christchurch was -1.8C, with fine weather and a high of 11C forecast for the city.

In Queenstown it was -1.1C early in the morning with a forecast of fine weather, light winds and a high of 9C.

MetService showed the coldest temperature early Tuesday morning was Twizel at -5.2C at 6am, with a high of 4C forecast in Twizel.

The warmest place in Aotearoa before 7am was Auckland’s North Shore with 11.4C.

MetService said it was a frosty start to the day for Canterbury and Marlborough, but overall Tuesday was forecast to be relatively settled apart from the odd shower or two.

– RNZ