A big high is rolling in across the country over the next few days but it’s not going to last – next week New Zealand faces rainmakers from both the tropics and the Tasman Sea as the much wetter than average weather pattern continues.

It’s a messy set up next week with another large low in the Tasman Sea coming towards New Zealand. Around Wednesday and Thursday it should start to bring in more widespread rain. It’s not as tropical as Debbie was, but rain may still be heavy and slow moving enough to cause issues.

However later next week towards Thursday and Good Friday there may be two tropical storms, or ex-cyclones, coming our way.

WeatherWatch.co.nz is fairly confident the one to the north west won’t directly hit New Zealand or bring severe weather but may bring increased swells to east coast beaches and added cloud, humidity and showers to the north of the country.

But the second possible cyclone may come directly towards New Zealand from the north to north west (from New Caledonia area). It’s too far out to lock in, but reliable computer models have been picking these storms to form for several days now and there does appear to be a zone around New Zealand suitable for at least two of these three lows to merge.

So next week is another serious week for New Zealand with the potential for more significant rain coming in and the risk of further slips and flooding.

Autumn is shaping up to be an extraordinarily wet season this year, especially for the North Island where most regions are now wetter than normal.

– Image above / Next Thursday before the Easter Weekend shows a large low in the Tasman Sea merging with a small but potent ex-Cyclone. This could be serious for areas already hit by flooding in the past month, but it’s too early to confirm if this outlook will unfold as the models suggest. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

– Image – GFS (American) model shows over the next 7 days a wetter than average pattern (Blue) covers much of the North Island. It remains drier than average in Southland however.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz