The next week or two around New Zealand are going to be dominated by westerly quarter winds that will surge off and on from lighter to stronger to gale and even severe gale. This relentless westerly flow means that western regions of both main islands will get the most amount of rain with some spillover a little further to the east and to the south. 

Over on the West Coast rainfall totals may get up to 500 mm (or more) in some places from the very north to the very south of the South Island over the next 15 days – mainly in the mountains, however for those east of the Southern Alps, in coastal Canterbury, it may only be 5 to 15 mm over the next half a month.

We break down the windy weather, the calmer spells, the colder changes and who gets the rain – we also have two rain maps, one covering the next seven days and the other covering the next 15 days.