Here’s what is making the weather headlines today.

SETTLED START TO THE WEEK, WARM IN THE NORTH

High pressure brings mainly settled weather to New Zealand today although a front lurking about the far south delivers a few patchy showers. The North Island is particularly settled with temperatures about inland areas in the northeast (East Cape across to Northland) reaching into the mid to late twenties.

RAINFALL MOSTLY AVERAGE COMING UP

The upcoming weather patterns through till Monday 12th December look to bring average rainfall to most regions around New Zealand however in the east especially the eastern South Island it is going to be drier than average.

Most of this rainfall will come in from the northerly quarter around the 7th through till the 11th December. The 12th sees a big high cover the country.

The precipitation percentage of normal map below shows areas where rainfall is expected to be less than average (red) compared to wetter than average (blue).

INSTABILITY NEXT WEEKEND

Some cold upper air looks to float over next weekend in long range weather models, this could mean some unstable weather around then, perhaps a few thunderstorms.

Maps below show the cold upper air moving in at the 500 hpa level (around 5000m high up in the atmosphere).

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