Source: MetService
Covering period of Thursday 18 September – Monday 22 September
The front which brought wet and windy conditions to many overnight will move across the North Island today while a cool, showery southwest flow becomes established over the rest of the country.
“The southwest flow over Aotearoa eases tomorrow as a ridge of high pressure moves across the country from the west, with the South Island in particular enjoying a welcome reprieve from the wild weather of the past few days,” explained MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin. Friday night is expected to be unseasonably chilly for many North Island locations due to the cooler air mass and the settled conditions expected with the ridge.
“However, the reprieve for the South Island doesn’t last long as a strengthening northerly flow builds over the country on Saturday ahead of another front approaching from the Tasman Sea,” Doolin said. The front moves up the South Island on Sunday, bringing extensive rain with heavy falls in the west, before becoming stationary over the central part of the country into the coming working week.
The North Island, on the other hand, should experience mostly fine conditions through the weekend. The upside for South Islanders is that temperatures will be fairly warm by September standards for eastern places courtesy of the warming of the northerly air as it descends the eastern side of the Southern Alps.
Early on Monday morning a partial solar eclipse will be visible in Aotearoa, with the southeastern South Island looking like the best spot to catch a glimpse.
