Heavy rain is coming to parts of northern NZ. The front is tracking up the South Island today but will stall over the top of the North Island this weekend. On top of that, an area of low pressure will also form. The rain is trapped between two very powerful high pressure zones and one of those highs is also feeding in tropical air this weekend to the rain.

🌀🌀It's a slow moving, complicated, system over the South Island. Here's what's going on as of 4:30pm Fri: Warm & humid air from #Tonga feeding down from the north, mixing over the SI with cold air off the #SouthernOcean.

🎥
🟢Rain / Showers
🟡Heavy Rain
🔵Snow
🟣Snow/Rain mix pic.twitter.com/Op1y92gaUV

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) September 22, 2023

Eastern Bay of Plenty and East Cape/Gisborne look most exposed to rain heavy enough to cause slips and localised flooding.

Meanwhile over 100mm of rain is still possible today on the West Coast with spillover into Canterbury.

With El Nino now here rain events like this will likely become fewer and farther between for eastern areas in the coming months.

Full details in our weather video out today.