Here’s what is making the weather headlines today….

Starting this weekend and not finishing until Friday of next week… here comes New Zealand's next 'squash zone' or 'atmospheric river'. It means a number of regions will be both warmer & wetter than average.

🖥️Full details in our latest #weather video, out by lunchtime today! pic.twitter.com/A1C7tEZgMW

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) April 27, 2023

☔️💧🌡️Over a month's worth of rain may fall across parts of the Upper North Island & the western half of the South Island over the next 7 days. It also comes with much warmer than usual air for the first week of May.

🍿Get the snacks ready – full details in our #video by noon!🙂 pic.twitter.com/F12QdyTN3a

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) April 27, 2023

HUMIDITY INCREASES IN THE NORTH THIS WEEKEND

The upper North Island will experience increasing dew points this weekend, this means an increasingly muggy feel in other terms.

We’ve mentioned this a few times before but a dew point of 10 degrees is fairly average, it won’t feel muggy. A dew point around 15 is starting to feel muggier now, once we reach a 20 degree dew point then this is the type of air that can be experienced in the tropics.

We can expect dew point temperatures in the region of 10 to 12 degrees for the upper North Island today, tomorrow we creep up to 13 – 14 degree dew points, 15 in the far north. Sunday and Monday sees dew points in the mid to late teens.

So warmer nights coming up are more likely but there will likely be cloudy skies and showers, rain north of Auckland on Sunday and Monday. The maps below are not exactly that clear but you can see the increasing dew points over the coming days for the upper North Island.

More on what the dew point temperature is here.

• 

• 

• 

• 

MID TWENTIES IN THE EAST NEXT WEEK?

From this weekend eastern regions of both Islands are likely to experience warm day time highs, getting into the late teens, perhaps even hitting 20 if winds are light enough and skies nice and sunny.

Around Wednesday there is a chance temperatures may even hit the mid twenties for the eastern South Island then maybe the eastern North Island on Thursday, this is a while away so no guarantees but with a northerly airflow coming in from way up in the tropics next week it looks possible.

• 

• 

RAIN ARRIVES IN THE NORTH ON SUNDAY

The weather is mainly settled for most of New Zealand today and this weekend, the northeastern North Island however does have occasional showers (East Cape through to Northland) in an easterly airflow. From Sunday rain looks to feed into Northland from the northeast thanks for a front spinning out of a low to the northwest.

There is a chance this rain may be heavy in the east, Metservice will issue any watches and warnings if this rain looks like it may reach or approach warning criteria here. Perhaps not for a day or two yet but something to keep an eye on.