Slowly but surely, the last ‘big wet’ of the season is leaving us but the winter of 2008 will certainly not hold the fondest of memories for many of us.

Saturated grounds, swollen rivers and swamped paddocks over a number of regions, is living proof that rain has certainly been in abundance over the last couple of months. We’ve been hammered from all quarters with severe gales and snow to torrential rain and flooding. Most of the country copped the lot but perhaps the southern and western part of the mainland, didn’t experience the severity, like many others did.

The hydro lakes did get a decent burst mid season but conditions have certainly been much drier in recent times.

Spring officially gets underway next week, which doesn’t necessarily mean long and pleasant sunny days for weeks on end, but fingers crossed, there won’t be a series of rain-bearing fronts and depressions stalling over New Zealand.

Westerlies are usually the predominant winds over the the next 3 months, which does bring showers from time to time to our shores and also hopefully a top up to our hydro lakes as well. In the mix usually, we traditionally see periods of sunny days and as we head towards the summer months, of course daylight hours continue to lengthen.

Today, the sun should emerge for many parts but still the odd rogue shower here and there, however not to the extent of what some central areas of the country have seen in recent days.

Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-teens for much of the country but still, in some parts from Giborne to coastal Otago, the cold moist air of recent days will more than likely still be felt.

Weather analyst Richard Green