Overnight and the expected heavy rain continued over Marlborough, Kaikoura and Canterbury.

Steady rain began to wind its way south over the regions yesterday and settled in steadily last evening.

Falls were heavy off and on throughout the night and there was little run off, due to saturated grounds from one of the wettest winters in years over parts of the mainland.

More rain with some heavy downpours are expected throughout the day and possibly lasting well into tomorrow, as the system becomes slow moving. Rainfall totals may exceed 100mm in North Canterbury and in Kaikoura too, which is a similar total that caused many problems just around a month ago.

The Canterbury plains are likely to receive amounts of between 50-80 mm and overnight, Christchurch topped 25mm. Ashburton, Timaru and Oamaru also saw steady rain overnight and are looking at more falls today.

Further south, Otago, Southland and much of the West Coast are missing the rain and Invercargill recorded a frost first thing and was sitting on minus one degree. In Haast, it was 14 degrees at 5am with a mild southeasterly and the warmest spot in the country.

As the rain continues, the Weatherwatch team will be keeping you updated.

Weather analyst, Richard Green