The end of a more settled week is upon us – just in time for the rough stuff to move in at both ends of the country this weekend!

We started the week in Wellington – checking in with the recovery from last week’s flooding in the capital and surrounding areas of the lower North Island.
The Kapiti Coast is recovering well from last week’s floods, after contractors and council staff worked all weekend to clean up after Thursday’s downpours.
Kapiti Mayor Ross Church says the district is recovering well, and he’s giving the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO) credit – though the full extent of the damage won’t be known ‘for weeks’.

For our snow bunnies, we ran a piece on skifields this week – previewing the season ahead – for which managers around the country have high hopes. 
There’s the possibility of a snowier season than last year, as winter resorts around the country are experiencing their first snowfalls of 2015.
Queenstown Lakes District’s skifields in particular have benefited from early dumps of snow, while Coronet Peak ski area manager Ross Copland told newspapers “We’re hoping for a bumper year for snow”.

If you’re interested in either aviation or space travel, we have your fix for the week – with news of a ‘top secret’ space plane launch that took place this week at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The Air Force space plane is actually called the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, and this is the plane’s fourth mission.
It looks like a small space shuttle, but it doesn’t have a crew, and can stay in space for years at a time.
The media nicknamed it the “secret space plane” because the Air Force won’t say much about what it does once it gets into space – check out what we DO know from our friends at CNN, here.

Speaking of our friends at CNN – this week the largest news network in the USA announced it was strengthening ties with WeatherWatch.co.nz, something we had both been working towards for some time now.
Check the full story out here – along with some pictures of our trip to CNN HQ in Atlanta!

A little closer to home, Australian landowners in the Hunter Valley are still struggling with the cleanup just a month after devastating floods around New South Wales.
One dairy farmer remains cut off after the Torryburn Bridge was destroyed, while oyster growers say losses are in the millions.
Authorities are still assessing the damage and deciding priorities in terms of the clean up and repair of infrastructure.

Have you ever wondered why a forecast of southwesterlies leaves you completely dry, while WEST-southwesterlies often result in showers, or maybe why some people complain so much about southerlies when they don’t seem like such a big deal where you are?
Well wonder no more – we’ve created a handy infographic which helps to explain a few of the more common weather patterns in the New Zealand seasonal calendar – which you can check out, here!

As we mentioned up top, this weekend is set to be “unusual” in the words of our very own Philip Duncan – with rain, hail and snow on the way for parts of the country.
Check out our detailed outlook, here – or if you’re in the South Island and you’re worried about the potential for snow, you can have a look at our snow specific forecast.
And as always, if you’re more of a visual learner – check out Philip Duncan’s weather video for this weekend which explains the situation in detail, right here!

– Drew Chappell, WeatherWatch.co.nz

– Photo: CNN