August is rarely a time for settled weather and this year is no different with low after low hitting us and high after high missing us.  However for the next few days the nation will have neither – putting us in a fairly neutral westerly flow which will see a few showers but also long sunny spells.

So where are the main lows and highs?  The low that was over New Zealand yesterday is today moving out to our east.  There’s a high well to our north west and another well to our south east. 

With no big lows near us it means little energy to fuel the rain clouds.  With no big highs it means little resistance to any showers that do move in.

So we end up in this kinda lazy weather pattern – in limbo if you like – with a few showers here and there (by the looks of things, more likely in the north and west of the North Island), some cloudy areas, and big dry spells too. 

Most regions will see the sun at some point over the next 48 hours – if not today then tomorrow and Saturday and some of Sunday too before the next low. 

The next 48 hours will see our weather generally driven from the west – before a warm northerly flow spreads across the nation this Saturday and Sunday ahead of the next big low.  It’s possible we might hit the 20 degree mark this weekend in a few isolated pockets as those warm sub-tropical winds move down before the thick rain clouds roll in.

This low should be cleared from NZ by next Tuesday with more high pressure moving in from the Tasman Sea – which limits these big rainmakers we’ve been having lately.  Fingers crossed this is the change that ends the current spell of very wet weather for new Zealand.

– Homepage image / File, Hot air balloon over Hamilton recently / Katy King

– By head weather analyst Philip Duncan