WeatherWatch.co.nz says more rain is on the way and some areas, especially the North Island and north west of the South island, can expect bursts of heavy rain as yet another slow moving band of rain with sub-tropical connections moves in.

High humidity, plenty of cloud and in the North drizzle and patches of rain, was the set up on Monday – and while Tuesday may be a little drier another low is quickly developing in the Tasman Sea and will bring very wet weather to the north and west of both islands during Wednesday and Thursday.

Southern and eastern New Zealand are expected to remain mostly dry but a few spits of rain are possible before the winds turn more south or south east later in the week – which WeatherWatch.co.nz expects will drive in showery weather, but probably not enough to reverse the drying trend in Otago and Southland.

The low in the Tasman could take as long as this weekend to cross the country or fizzle out – either way it’s held up by that same strong high east of New Zealand.

But for those who are tired already of the gloom, there is sun on the horizon – but you’ll need to wait a week for it.

WeatherWatch.co.nz expects a high – or at the very least higher air pressure and therefore more stable weather – to move in next Monday and last a number of days.

As for Christmas day? Well early modelling is showing a similar La Nina set up with a high to our east and a low to our west – and New Zealand in the middle with breezy east to north east winds at the top of the country and the driest, sunniest weather in the South Island’s east coast.  But models this far out are notorious for wild changes – so we’ll keep you posted.  Lately the models have been mostly on track with their predictions.

We’ll issue our first Christmas Day forecast before the end of this week so keep an eye out.

– Homepage image / MandenoMoments.com

– WeatherWatch.co.nz