Keep your brollies close - they work as sunshades too

Friends make their way along Auckland's Tamaki Drive yesterday. Photo / Greg Bowker

All I want for Christmas is ... an umbrella. But don't panic - forecasters are predicting we'll be using our brollies for sunshades by Christmas Day after needing them to keep the rain off for most of this week.

Heavy rain over much of the North Island brought down trees in Parnell and Titirangi in Auckland and in Te Kuiti and caused surface flooding in Taranaki yesterday. Another tree fell, blocking the road at Tapu, north of Thames.

One person died in a crash near Wellsford yesterday.

The head-on collision happened about 4.40pm on State Highway 1 in Dome Valley.

Three people received non-life-threatening injuries in the crash, which occurred in wet weather.

"Weather was a factor, but it comes down to driver error," said shift commander Ben Offner of the police northern communications centre.

"If it's wet, you've got to slow down - simple as that."

More rain is forecast for Auckland and the northern North Island today, but forecasters were reluctant to say if the wet weather was enough to end the fears of drought plaguing farmers over recent weeks.

MetService duty forecaster Oliver Druce said the agency would "crunch a whole lot of numbers" today before any concerns over droughts were quelled.

"There's been quite a bit [of rain] and there's more to come. We have to wait until it's over.

"It's been a huge relief to a lot of areas - there's been substantial rainfalls in practically all the drought areas. I don't want to say that it's finished or anything, but we're well on the way to reducing the problem."

Mr Druce said the forecast for Christmas Day and Boxing Day was "pretty settled" weather and "probably fine in most places ... It's six or seven days out so I don't want to give any details but it's looking good".

But, he said a "severe weather event" was predicted for the South Island tomorrow, which would bring heavy rain to the west, and gales in the east.

In Auckland, more rain was on the way, but this was not expected to be as bad as the weekend's weather, he said.

Severe rain warnings were issued yesterday in place for Taranaki, where 150mm had fallen in the ranges, and in the Bay of Plenty, Westland and Nelson, although the worst of it was believed to be over by last night.

Christchurch, which reached 33C on Saturday, had dropped to 19C yesterday but remained mild and humid.

Philip Duncan, head weather analyst for WeatherWatch said the warm, wet conditions were "typical La Nina" which had arrived later than expected.

"La Nina weather for us in Auckland is north-easterlies, a lot of cloud, high humidity and plenty of rain, it's just weird that it didn't arrive last month."

But he too was reluctant to dispel any worries about drought because the rain had been patchy and some towns, including Matamata and Te Aroha, had not received as much as others.

"Even with the rain this week, most places will still be in deficit of where they should be. It's way too early to say that the drought is over because we may well still fall back into another dry period again ... this will be doing some good work for the water tanks and for the grass but underneath the ground we still need quite a bit more rain."

All the latest weather forecasts at nzherald.co.nz/weather