New Zealand still has another 36 hours or so of dealing with Gita’s remnants but the worst has passed, generally speaking, for the country.

There may still be more pockets of flooding and strong winds over the next day or two though – so people in the more exposed areas should be up to date with the latest forecasts. Here’s the latest on Gita by qualified meteorologists at The Weather Company specifically for WeatherWatch.co.nz and the New Zealand public.

Main bullet points: 

• Cyclone Gita passed through the northern part of the South Island late Tuesday night.
• The main remnants of Gita are currently located eastwards off the coast of Christchurch as a strong extra-tropical cyclone. It will remains close to the South Island today. The rain is in the southern half of the low.
• A secondary weaker cyclonic disturbance remains off the West Coast. It will move northeastward to cross the country near the Cook strait late tonight.
• The peak of heavy rainfall in upper South Island has ended. Today medium amounts of rainfall produced by Gita will accumulate in lower east South Island before it clears later tonight.
• Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough, and Wellington will have a period of rain tonight due to the secondary low off the West Coast moving through. An isolated thunderstorm is possible and locally heavy downpours.
• Though the amount of additional accumulation will not be generally heavy, caution should be taken especially over the areas where heavy rain has already fallen.
• Strong SW winds will persist along the eastern coastline of southern Canterbury and coastal Otago today. Wind speeds around 40km/h are likely in many areas. Gale force winds will be not widespread but are possible in exposed areas.

– Maps and data by The Weather Company (An IBM business)

– WeatherWatch.co.nz (An official IBM/TWC business partner)