Here’s what is making the weather headlines today.

🚨A deluge is coming for #Nelson & #Tasman & western NZ.

⚠️Slips, flooding & road closures likely this week based on the forecast of a staggering half metre of rain (500mm+) by Saturday. 200mm alone may fall just on Wed in Takaka!

Full details in our video out around lunchtime pic.twitter.com/z2CA49VQ0X

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) August 14, 2022

❓#Question: Why is the #Nelson/#Tasman region so much more exposed to this significant Northerly rain event than the North Island is?

🔉#Answer: The South Island is much further west, so when a northerly flow comes in, there's almost no obstacle in the way to break up the rain. pic.twitter.com/F0evpRQeNP

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) August 15, 2022

HIGH ON THE WAY OUT

The high that brought us a nice settled weekend is on the way out today moving away to the east. It may still be a frosty start inland and there could be some sun for eastern regions but expect high cloud moving in from the Tasman Sea also ahead of a front.

Western regions see thickening cloud with the odd shower appearing in the far north and for the West Coast, rain for the West Coast this evening, becoming more persistent overnight.

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RAIN IN THE WEST ON TUESDAY – SOUTH ISLAND

The front mentioned above feeds into the northwestern corner of the South Island on Tuesday bringing more rain which will be heavy in areas, especially Tasman down through to about Hokitika. Later in the day heavy rain spreads southwards down into South Westland.

Temperatures for eastern regions of both Islands and the upper North Island (Waikato northwards) should reach at least 17 to 18 degrees, perhaps as high as 19 for Hawkes Bay and Gisborne.

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UPDATED PRECIPITATION MAP – NEXT 7 DAYS

The next seven days (through to the 22nd August) is looking particularly wet for the West Coast and top of the South Island. As you can see in the “Precipitation percentage of normal” map below, the aforementioned areas are heavily shaded in blue.

The more blue the colour, the more those particular areas are expecting rain above normal. The areas shaded in red are expecting drier than normal conditions for this time of year, white is average rainfall.

Keep up to date with any watches and warnings put out by Metservice in regards to this rain here.