For half of New Zealand (mostly the southern half) the weather has hardly been newsworthy in recent days – and soon the calmer, sunnier and drier weather will spread to all of New Zealand as the threat of severe weather diminishes this week.

WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters say the large sub-tropical low that brought slips and flooding to Coromandel Peninsula and western Bay of Plenty on Monday will cross the upper North Island over the next day or two as it slowly fizzles out.

Behind it is a large high that will see sunnier and drier weather spread across New Zealand. This weather has already moved in to the West Coast on Monday.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday all look mostly settled for the country at this stage, bar a few remaining showers around East Cape, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay on Thursday – which may linger until Friday around Gisborne.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says most places will see conditions improving on Wednesday and Thursday…and for those who have had mostly sunny weather, well, it’s likely to continue for a few days yet. The only exception will be Tuesday and Wednesday along the South Island’s east coast as some light rain and showers heads south along the coastline.

Rain is expected to turn to snow above 500m around Christchurch on Wednesday – with the city likely to only reach 8 degrees.

Sunnier weather should return to the eastern South Island across Thursday and Friday although clouds caught up in the nor’easter may continue.

And what about that warm weather in the upper North Island? It will continue for Tuesday and then shift closer to normal temperatures later in the week – however temperatures may well remain above average for the rest of July in the Top Half, which is good news for dairy farmers with grass growth expected to lift.

– Homepage image / File, Omaha north of Auckland, Gavin Smith

– WeatherWatch.co.nz