Apart from a few heavy showers much of the severe weather over New Zealand is easing this morning as a high starts to move back in. 

A further 4000 lightning strikes have been recorded since midnight around the country but conditions are now easing for most with one final surge of heavy showers moving across the North Island’s west coast over the next few hours.

Overseas now and the Hurricane season is stepping up a notch this weekend with the third tropical storm being named – and this one is set to be the first to make landfall on, or at least brush, US soil.

Tropical Storm Cristobal has formed off the South Carolina coast and although it’s not likely to reach Hurricane status before it impacts America it is still expected to bring damaging wind gusts and flooding rains to the Carolinas.

Meanwhile further out in the Atlantic and Hurricane Bertha, which has been around for a couple of weeks now, is heading towards Iceland.  It is expected to pass the Island as a category 1 Hurricane.

And American forecasters are now watching another area of activity in the Caribbean which could see a tropical storm heading into the Gulf of Mexico next week.

Back home and forecasters are closely watching New Zealand’s next storm – a depression currently developing in the area that borders the Southern Ocean and southern Tasman Sea.  Severe north west gales, heavy rain and snow are all expected next week.  We’ll have a full report in our update tonight.