Updated — A colder change is moving up the South Island for Monday as low pressure exits east of the North Island easing wind and rain – but only very briefly. Low pressure again grows east of the North Island on New Year’s Eve and brings a repeat performance of a quite windy sou-east to sou-west flow over the island again, bringing eastern rain, western showers and strong to gale force winds in exposed areas.

It’s not an ideal forecast for those camping or outdoors, particularly in the North Island on New Year’s Eve – although there may be some easing of conditions going into NYE evening, and then the weather possibly eases a little further on New Year’s Day too . But it’s all about timing – and as with any low pressure zone that is growing around us your local forecasts will be changeable due to instability. All our local forecasts update hourly which, on the day itself, is especially helpful coupled with the MetService rain radar.

⛺️⚠️💨Get those tent pegs hammered down, tighten the ropes – prepare for gusty weather developing today, peaking New Year's Eve aftenoon/evening, then windy afternoons off & on for the days ahead. (Esp. around the North Island where gales & severe gales are possible on Tuesday). pic.twitter.com/5Wv437iejo

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) December 29, 2024

We need that old TVNZ image of the Goodnight Kiwi tripping over the power cord and accidently pulling the plug out of the wall, causing technical difficulties …

🥶#Dunedin #Summer #Southerlies pic.twitter.com/cSGSQeGvFz

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) December 29, 2024

Also, the southerly change moving up the country will bring hit and miss downpours and thunderstorms over Monday and possibly Tuesday too.

Official MetService weather warnings are possible/likely.

Windy weather may be an annoying feature for those outdoors and in tents and awnings this week. We’ll have a full forecast in our Monday weather video on New Zealand’s weather forecast for the end of 2024 and going into the first weekend of 2025. Our video on Tuesday will be a special general 2 Week Outlook going into January as we take some time off from making videos during the first half of January.

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