A number of fronts will cross NZ in the days ahead with stormy systems over the Southern Ocean the main reason why. This is normal for August but will produce pockets of severe weather with gales around Central NZ today (but stronger ones on Tuesday) and heavy rain for the West Coast. Snow will be heavy in the mountains of the South Island. Tuesday next week sees a decent burst of wind, rain and mid to high elevation snow across parts of NZ.

Tuesday may also see travel disruptions in some parts of NZ – road, sea and air.

Friday:
Heavy rain and strong northwesterly winds that blew over the lower South Island on Thursday move to the upper South Island and lower portions of the North Island through Friday afternoon. Daily rainfall will be 30-50 mm across portions of Tasman, Taranaki and Wellington. Northwesterly wind gusts will be 100-120 km/h across Cook Strait on Friday morning.

Friday night to Saturday:
Fiordland and West Coast will receive heavy rain with 30-50 mm of total rainfall or 10-20 cm of mountain snow, while south western portions of the North Island will see light showers Saturday. Northwesterly wind gusts will be 100-120 km across exposed potions of Southern Alps and Cook Strait.


Monday to Tuesday:
Heavy rain will hit West Coast Monday to Tuesday. Moderate to locally heavy rain will expand to southwestern portions of the North Island on Tuesday. Total rainfall amount will be 80-100 mm across West Coast and 30 mm with locally 50 mm across portions of the North Island. Snowfall amounts will be 30-50 cm with isolated areas of 80-100 cm across mountain areas of the South Island and this may impact highways in both main islands.
Wind gusts will be 100-120 km across exposed parts of both the North Island and South Island and may gust even higher for a time.

Drill down deeper? Need hyper-local data specific to where you are? Visit RuralWeather.co.nz