High pressure is the dominant force overall today however we do have a few little quirks in the system, the overriding factors being one caused by moisture, the other by heat.

The North Island has quite a few areas of cloud, the odd shower from Gisborne up through to Northland in an east to northeasterly airflow. This afternoon cloud breaks up and sunny areas plus warmth moves in (highs in the mid to late twenties). This heating combined with good surface moisture (1st factor) destabilises the atmosphere and a few showers develop, mainly south Auckland through into Taranaki and across to the ranges of Hawkes Bay and Gisborne. Hills and ranges will be favoured for these showers, inland Taranaki and the ranges of East Cape / Gisborne in particular may see an isolated thunderstorm / downpour.

The South Island has an area of low pressure form in the east thanks to heat (2nd factor) and this drags in a southerly airflow for eastern regions, Southland will have some cloud this morning, moving into coastal Otago by midday then during the course of the afternoon and into this evening cloud moves north through Canterbury. It will likely stay dry though but coastal will feel a bit cooler as cloud moves in. The top half of the South Island has a warm day, so too does Central Otago and the Mackenzie Country with highs in the mid to late twenties, conversely Southland and coastal Otago has highs in the late teens.

Any heavy showers clear up for the North Island later this evening, on Thursday heavy rain moves in for the West Coast of the South Island from the Tasman Sea.

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Maps most relevant today are…

• Live Rain Radar
• Animated Temperature Maps
• Lightning page
• RuralWeather: Localised Cloud, UV & Temperature Data & Graphs

See your local hourly & 10 day forecast at WeatherWatch.co.nz – or for more details and event planning visit RuralWeather.co.nz for the most detailed and hyper-local forecasts in NZ.

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WeatherWatch.co.nz – Daily Newsfeed