*Originally published on Monday — In our latest climate update (+video) we take a look at the increasingly dry weather pattern returning to New Zealand.

WeatherWatch.co.nz was the first forecaster to warn of droughts developing for 2020 way back in spring 2019, now we are again exclusively talking about dry weather returning from Australia as NZ Government forecasters talk of a rain and cold in their fax funded outlook. (MetService says May looks stormy and cold). (please note: Since our story was published MetService has changed their May outlook to match ours, updating their outlook on Wednesday May 13 significantly. WeatherWatch.co.nz’s outlook/story was originally published on Monday May 11th).

WeatherWatch.co.nz says Australia is again being smothered by a lot of high pressure, limiting rainfall significant for many states. These same highs have lately been drifting into the NZ area and over the rest of May more high pressure is likely here.

RAIN:
In a nut shell more high pressure looks to come to NZ bringing more dry weather, especially to eastern areas.

But the first week of May did see some good rainfall totals here and there – but it was lumpy. For example some parts of Northland, Waikato and Coromandel have over 80-90mm of rain falling. But parts of the Hauraki Plains had perhaps just 10 to 15 depending on where you were.

Eastern areas of both islands, especially Canterbury, Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay all continue to lean drier than normal with a dry forecast for much of the rest of May.

TEMPERATURES:
Temperatures lean warmer than normal – but only slightly.

WHAT THE MAY AIR PRESSURE MAPS TELL US
Red boxes indicate high pressure belts. Blue boxes show lows/depressions

Need to make sense of all this? Watch Philip Duncan’s latest 11 minute Climate Video covering May, June and July.