Here’s what is making the weather headlines today.

COLD FRONTS HEAD NORTHWARDS

A series of cold front push northwards over the country today, western regions can expect showers as well as the far south. The second of the two cold fronts moving into the lower South Island this afternoon brings strong southwesterlies for coastal Southland and Otago then coastal Canterbury this evening. Strong southerlies move into the lower North Island around midnight.

With the second front also comes a few showers moving up the eastern side of the country. There is some cold air in the lower atmosphere associated with this front so there may be a few snow flurries to about 400m about the lower South Island this evening then overnight into Canterbury however precipitation amounts are quite low so nothing to worry about, an annoyance if anything.

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A FEW FROSTS ON THE WAY – INLAND

Friday morning brings a chance for some frosts about inland parts of the South Island, generally these will only be light with lows of no more than -2 for alpine areas. Saturday mornings brings a chance of a light frost also and this time extends to inland parts of the North Island.

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MAINLY DRY THROUGH TO THE 27TH OCTOBER

While we do have a few fronts moving through today bringing showers there isn’t really all that much to them. High pressure lingers on in some form moving in on Friday through to the 27th October at least bringing mainly dry weather.

A front bringing some patchy rain to the South Island on Monday October 24th may bring some brief relief, rain would be welcome so lets hope it comes to fruition.

The West Coast and Southland have average rainfall for the next 7 days. The map below shows drier than expected rainfall over the next 7 days in pink / red, wetter than average is blue. White is average.

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