So far June has a been a windy, cold, month for many regions with plenty of southerly quarter winds – but this weekend New Zealand is under a “BFH” – a Big Fat High.

The high, from Australia, will bring a settled weekend to the nation and mainly dry weather.

With the high covering most of New Zealand on Saturday winds will be light for most and any showers will likely be light and isolated to the Far North, East Cape and maybe Fiordland.

By Sunday the high will be just east of the country allowing for milder sub-tropical northerly quarter winds to form and spread over the nation into Monday with rain developing in both islands for a time.

Fog patches are possible in both islands in the usual places this weekend due to the calm conditions. Cloudy areas may also linger a little longer in some places with no wind to blow it away.

Next week a sub-tropical low will brush northern New Zealand and is “one to watch” in case it brings heavy rain – the low may actually weaken but linger around northern New Zealand for much of next week while yet another large high from southern Australia spreads over the rest of the country.

This very large belt of high pressure over the Southern Ocean, something WeatherWatch forecasters dubbed a “mega high” has now lead to Adelaide having it’s driest start to June in 60 years.

These Australian highs are also affecting rainfall totals in New Zealand and may affect the hydro-electric dams this winter with news reports this week that this may already be happening.

Noon Saturday

Noon next Wednesday shows a sub-tropical low remaining just north of NZ while an even large high pressure system from Australia moves across the country – continuing a dry trend.

– Maps / Weathermap

– WeatherWatch.co.nz