It’s been slow coming for some regions but true summer weather is now locked in across much of New Zealand.

Latest reliable data shows a drier than average trend (in red shading in the first map below) across most of the country thanks to an uptick in high pressure. As New Zealand gets more high pressure the air pressure is dropping in eastern Australia allowing for rain and showers in the drought and bushfire regions. 

This significant uptick in high pressure is also tracking further south, protecting the South Island much more than it has been doing and – for a time – this will allow an easterly quarter flow around the North Island (the opposite to the westerlies lately). These southern placed highs also stop the Southern Ocean skies (which have been overly active weather-wise lately) from sending further colder, windier, changes over the South Island.

High pressure dominates some regions for the rest of January at this stage. 

However, long range data we trust also suggests the rain clouds may return late January and early February. We’ll keep an eye on that for you – and remember you can drill down further with www.RuralWeather.co.nz (it takes 10 seconds to load all the data first time you visit but has more freely available data for your local area than any other website on earth).

The next 7 to 10 days look mainly dry and drier than average across New Zealand. Fiordlnd, South Westsland, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay lean closer to normal thanks to a few showers.

THE MAPS 
(*please note, if you’re colour blind you may prefer the graphs and 10 day data at www.RuralWeather.co.nz – please note it takes 10 seconds to load)ABOVE: Next 7 days rainfall compared to normal for this time of year, showing most regions drier than average.

BELOW: Next 10 days forecast rainfall (GFS) 

– WeatherWatch.co.nz