Here’s what is making the weather headlines today….

A new weather pattern is forming for the rest of #August …dominated by more high pressure & longer dry spells.

Still coastal showers in the forecast, and a cold change moves up NZ this weekend bringing a colder Monday for the North Island.

🎥Details in our #video out soon 😀 pic.twitter.com/FADgYpkcw8

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) August 22, 2023

WARMEST AFTERNOON HIGHS

Well we know it’s settled at the moment, that means frosts and fog morning and night. Winds are light, skies are mostly sunny generally but some regions have areas of cloud.

Who gets the warmest afternoon temperatures today and tomorrow?

When it comes to today temperatures about Southland and parts of Otago are warmest getting into the mid teens, that is due to a northerly airflow about the far south.

When it comes to Thursday temperatures will be similar for the upper North Island and the east of the South Island. Highs will likely be between 12 to 14 degrees.

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FROST RISK DECREASING

This morning is still quite cold, especially for inland areas, but as we move into Thursday and Friday the morning frost risk lessons. More details at this page here.

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RAIN OUTLOOK

Time for another look at the old faithful “Precipitation percentage of normal” map. As you can see below a fair amount of New Zealand is looking drier than normal over the next seven days. Only some parts of the North Island (mainly in the east) are looking to have an average amount of rainfall, north of Mahia Peninsula in the east is a touch wetter than normal.

Why? We have more high pressure hanging around us than low pressure. There is a cold front heading northwards this weekend and this will bring showers or perhaps some rain, cold temperatures too and snow in the ranges. High pressure starts to move in behind this system on Tuesday next week.

The map below runs through to Wednesday 30th August. Blue coloring means that part of the country is likely to see more rainfall than would normally be expected at this time of year, red means less rainfall is expected and white is an average amount of rainfall. The more intense either red or blue then either scenario is more true.