More severe weather is coming for parts of Auckland and the upper North Island as wind and rain once again return to regions already impacted in previous days.

On Friday the rain and wind moved into Auckland with rain stalling over the city. By the weekend that system picked up and moved into Waikato, Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty, before stopping then reversing Sunday afternoon and overnight last night/this morning to move back up in to Northland and Auckland.

By Tuesday low pressure west of Northland and the big controlling high to the east of NZ will see ‘squash zone’ winds from the north east return, rising to gale – and possibly damaging gusts – later in the day and overnight, easing on Wednesday.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the front moving and reversing then returning again is due to powerful controlling high pressure to the east of New Zealand.

As with most squash zones, the heaviest rain is coupled with the wind, sometimes the heaviest rain can be just behind the worst of the winds. (as we saw in Auckland on Friday).

Rainfall totals in parts of Northland, Auckland and Coromandel Peninsula may be 100mm to 200mm in the coming days, with those on the edges receiving 50 to 100mm. This is more than a month’s worth of rain for January and on top of the recent deluge it means there remains a high risk for slips and flooding.

“I know there are a lot of people with anxiety at the moment. The best I can say is no two severe weather events are perfectly the same, they are as unique as fingerprints, so it’s not alway a carbon copy for everyone of what we just experienced.” says head forecaster Philip Duncan. “For those most worried about the rain, track it live on the MetService rain radar which you can find at WeatherWatch and RuralWeather or from MetService’s website, that way you can see where the heaviest and driest areas are and sometimes tracking, seeing and understanding it can help a little”.

Mr Duncan says by Thursday, this week-long-event will finally be over. “Waitangi Weekend looks much more positive for the North Island, it may be the South Island’s turn to get some wetter and windier weather”.

• MetService Severe Thunderstorm Outlook
• MetService Current Warnings and Watches
• RuralWeather.co.nz – Wind & Rain graphs, Hourly & Daily rainfall totals for all locations in NZ.
• 7 Day Rain Accumulation Maps
• Interactive PredictWind Maps (compare wind models side-by-side)

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• WeatherWatch.co.nz – an IBM Business Partner & CNN News affiliate