Here’s what is making the weather headlines this weekend.

THE LAST OF THE SETTLED WEATHER TODAY BEFORE FRONT MOVES IN

The weather for New Zealand is settled today thanks to high pressure and it is the last day with settled weather as a front heads into the South Island tomorrow bringing heavy rain for the West Coast and some rain about the far south.

In the map below you can see this front looming to the west.

FRONT FROM SUNDAY – THE MAIN FEATURE

There is not much change this Sunday as a front moves onto the South Island, with it comes some heavy rain for the West Coast and warm weather in the east. The heaviest falls will be about South Westland and now look to be getting into a fair part of North Westland too, but for Buller later in the evening / overnight the rain will ease up a bit.

Expect some rain about Southland and Otago also, not heavy but some rain none the less then breaking away in the evening. As the front moves northwards some scattered rain looks to now spread into Canterbury from evening then Nelson and Marlborough overnight.

The North Island is largely dry on Saturday and Sunday with plenty of sun, some cloud at times for the upper North Island and in the west, sunny in the east with developing high cloud on Sunday. Monday the front moves in there with rain for western regions which will be welcome.

Keep up to date with the latest watches and warnings from Metservice regarding this front here.

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FROST RISK NEXT WEEK

Once high pressure starts to move in, possibly as early as Tuesday next week, a frost risk develops. This will start about inland parts of the lower South Island Tuesday morning then spread further northwards for Wednesday morning and could hang around for the rest of the week. Anywhere skies are clear the night before and winds are light frost potential exists, cold frosts will be about inland areas with lighter frosts nearer coastal parts.

Below is the computer modeled outlook for Twizel, inland South Canterbury. As we can see Wednesday through to Saturday there is cold temperatures in the mornings, this model isn’t exactly showing a frost with lows around 3 or 4 degrees however the models aren’t perfect just yet and temperatures can often drop a bit lower then what is being shown here. For example, Friday morning (6th May) models were indicating a low of 3 or 4 degrees for Twizel first thing but it got down to 0.

For more info as we get to about Tuesday / Wednesday next week keep an eye on our frost risk indicator here. Or use the search function at ruralweather.co.nz