La Nina packs a watery punch here and Australia

Strange lights in the sky were more than likely Chinese lanterns. Photo / NZ Herald

It's safe to say that the La Nina weather conditions predicted by Niwa and WeatherWatch.co.nz have arrived.

Torrential rain for the last week of 2010 saw campsites flooded, roads closed and farms receiving healthy rainfalls.

While the Northern Hemisphere is being hit by snow storms, the Australian region is being hit by rain. Major rain. And this week New Zealand got some of the spill over.

I can't recall a time when Australia has had so much severe weather in all four corners - from the once-in-a-lifetime deluge in parts of Queensland, to the thunderstorms and downpours that struck Victoria and New South Wales. Droughts that have scorched the big red continent for several years have come to an end.

Meanwhile on the West Coast, monsoon-like lows are moving in.

Not all of this is La Nina related, but certainly the major flooding around Brisbane is. The recent rain events in New Zealand - some of which have also been drought stoppers - are related to this activity to the northeast of Australia.

Now 2011 is here, we can expect a La Nina to continue. We're seeing more evidence of the rain coming and true to La Nina it comes as a deluge, packaged with cloud cover and humidity.

Strange lights have been seen in the skies over New Zealand. A spate of reports about "strange lights" came in to WeatherWatch.co.nz on Boxing Day from Napier and Christchurch.

"Tonight the wife was outside and saw some odd lights in the sky. Looked to be red in colour and floated from northwest across us and went to the southwest. We counted about 16 in total. They made no sound and they all travelled the same direction. Anyone else see them?" reported 'Phil'.

We are almost 100 per cent certain the mysterious flying lights are Chinese lanterns with a candle inside. They travel silently on a gentle breeze and from the ground it can be hard to work out if they are something big in the distance or something small up close.

Sorry guys - doesn't appear to be a UFO this time around.