Here’s what is making the weather headlines today.

HEAVY RAIN POSSIBLE NORTHLAND

A southeasterly airflow pushes in showers north of Auckland today, this evening rain for eastern Northland may become heavy then easing overnight.

There is a chance this heavy rain may stay just offshore, the model outputs are flipping between the various outcomes. We shall see. Either way, it will likely not be enough to cause to many if any issues.

RISK OF AN ISOLATED SHOWER CANTERBURY HILL COUNTRY – WEDNESDAY

A southerly change moving up the east coast of the South Island on Wednesday triggers a few isolated showers about the South and Mid Canterbury hill country, perhaps North Canterbury for a moment later. One or two of these showers may become briefly heavy.

In the evening and overnight cloud thickens nearer the coast with a few showers or drizzle patches becoming a little more widespread for a time.

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STRONG WINDS AND HEAVY RAIN FRI / SAT – NORTH ISLAND

A front is forecast to gradually push down over the upper North Island on Friday with rain, heavy in the east. Strong to gale easterly winds precede this front also, this thanks to a squash zone created by the front between it and a large high to the southeast.

Overnight and into Saturday the front spreads southwards over the rest of the North Island, winds shouldn’t be as strong but there is still some heavy rain potential, especially for Bay Of Plenty.

On Saturday there is also some very humid air for the upper North Island behind the front mentioned above once it’s moved through, this leads to a chance of heavy showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon then easing at night. In the below maps you can see the lifted index figures, the more below zero it is the more unstable. And there is also a CAPE map (Convective available potential energy), the higher this figure the more unstable it is also.

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