The nights are getting longer, the mornings cooler and cloudy periods and isolated showers are becoming more frequent as summer starts to slowly get a bit tattered around the edges.  Summer officially draws to a close this Saturday although summer-like weather usually continues through the first half of March.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says while much of New Zealand is dry, or still drying out, the long range forecasts see a step up in more Autumnal weather.  “We see more life in the Southern Ocean which means the southern most regions of New Zealand will soon start to get more regular tastes of autumn as fronts come out of the Southern Ocean more frequently” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.

“There’s no single drought breaker in the short term but plenty of helpful showers and fronts that will be peppering various parts of the country over the next couple of weeks”.

Mr Duncan says the four driest regions – North Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough and Wairarapa may see some wet weather in the coming week or two, but drier weather will still dominate.  However some pockets of those regions are likely to get some localised relief.

RainWatch – tracking where the wettest weather will be over the next week or so…
Weds 25th – Showers possible for Canterbury, Otago and Central North Island
Thurs 26th, Fri 27th – Isolated showers near some ranges of both islands – possibly heavy – otherwise mostly dry.
Fri 28th – Rain, West Coast – some spillover. 
March 1st – A few showers, mainly the lower western North Island.
March 2nd – Rain for the West Coast, some showers into Otago and Southland. A low risk of a shower in South Canterbury.
March 3 & 4 – Rain on the West Coast, could be heavy at times with a little spillover into the dry east.
March 5, 6, 7- A sou’west change for many places will bring the feeling that Autumn is closer to moving in – not overly cold, but just a cool change for some with a few showers – mostly in the south and west of the nation.
March 8 – Most of NZ is dry but a sub-tropical low could be approaching Northland – with a very large high moving in from the south west (centred over Tasmania around March 9th) behind it.  If the high moves in quickly it will push the sub-tropical rain just north east of NZ…if it’s slow to move in the low could directly move into the upper North Island. One to watch for that very reason – and it’s now showing up in our long range maps at WeatherWatch.co.nz.

Have your say:

Are you outside North Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough and Wairarapa but feel like you have a drought where you are? Let us know by posting a comment below (and don’t forget to mention the region you’re in!)  

– WeatherWatch.co.nz