A quick run down of the main weather headlines surrounding New Zealand, Australia and the world this weekend.

New Zealand
Sub-tropical low — Here in New Zealand we’re in for a mostly quiet weekend.  We have three news worthy features.  A small sub-tropical low to the north west has the potential to bring some heavy rain to northern New Zealand on Sunday or Monday.  As of 5pm Thursday WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters deemed this risk to be low but worth closely monitoring.

Southern Ocean low — In the Southern Ocean a small low will also form, this low will help bring in some rain to the West Coast and some late weekend rain or showers to Southland.  It will also push a brisk westerly back in across southern and central parts of the country.

Warmth — Through central parts of the nation, mainly in the east from Canterbury to Gisborne, warm westerlies will see temperatures range from 15 to 20 degrees over Friday and Saturday.

Australia
Warmth — Across Australia this weekend sunshine will be the order of the day for most main centres with highs over 20 degrees in almost all the main centres and closer to 30 in places like Alice Springs.  A warm nor’wester will spread into Adelaide and Melbourne too.  Wettest will be Brisbane up to Cairns.

USA
Hurricane Irene — The Weather Channel earlier today announced that over 55 million Americans could be “significantly affected” by monster hurricane Irene.  The hurricane is expected to make landfall along the eastern seaboard Saturday night or Sunday morning NZT. 

We will be tracking Irene with extensive updates right here at www.WeatherWatch.co.nz. 

The hurricane is currently to the south east of Florida and is expected to make landfall in the Carolinas in two days time.

– Homepage image / File, Sereena Burton

– WeatherWatch.co.nz