Whanganui weather: Spring temperatures on the rise but rain will continue

Rainy weather will continue this week in Whanganui. Photo / NZME

Whanganui residents can look forward to some slightly higher temperatures than average for this time of year going into the weekend, but the rain will continue.

A mix of cloudy and partly sunny conditions with some spurts of heavier rain can be expected for the rest of the week.

“We’ve kind of got a band of rain pushing up through [Wednesday] afternoon, so it’s pretty cloudy,” MetService meteorologist Alanna Burrows said.

Spurts of rain would continue in the afternoon, before easing off into the evening with more scattered showers and then a “settled spell” overnight, Burrows said.

Thursday would start with cloudy skies before turning to rain, with low clouds and consistent showers through most of the day.

“It’s quite a rainy day [on Thursday],” Burrows said.

Friday would provide some relief from the rainy conditions, especially at the beginning of the day.

A new low-pressure system coming from the Tasman Sea would bring the rain back on Friday evening.

“It looks like it’s going to potentially [be] some unsettled weather and maybe some rain through the afternoon and evening,” Burrows said.

Rain was expected to continue through most of the weekend from the low-pressure system but may clear later on Sunday.

“As we go into Saturday, we have bands of rain cycling [in] that low-pressure system,” Burrows said.

“We can see periods of rain through Saturday and into Sunday, and then it looks like it will clear through on Sunday night.”

Daytime highs would be 16C on Wednesday, 19C on Thursday, 20C on Friday and Saturday, and 17C on Sunday.

The forecast temperature for Friday and Saturday was 4C above the average for this time of year, Burrows said.

Overnight lows were expected to be 7C on Wednesday, 10C on Thursday, 12C on Friday, 10C on Saturday and 9C on Sunday.

Winds would be strongest today with averages of 35-40km/h, with gusts of up to 63km/h.

“We’ve got like a moderate to fresh westerly breeze at the moment. That’s going to ease as we head into [Wednesday] evening,” Burrows said.

Westerly winds were expected to be lighter through the rest of the week. There was a slight chance this could change, depending on the movement of the low-pressure system coming from the Tasman Sea, Burrows said.