An airflow from Rarotonga is spreading across the top of New Zealand on Sunday with a weak low north of the country interacting with high pressure, now centred east of the Chatham Islands. This high pressure is still slowly sliding eastwards off the country and this places a humid northerly quarter flow over many regions.

⚡️It's all happening in Whangamōmona … pic.twitter.com/IQJKpmedCp

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 21, 2024

Winds may pick up in the north of NZ (eastern coastal areas) and other eastern parts of the country today (like Dunedin / Otago Peninsula).

The low to the north of New Zealand may drive in some rain or showers in that humid nor-east flow moving into East Cape, Bay of Plenty and coastal areas of the east over/up to Northland. Most of the rain will be offshore but some areas may get brushed by some heavier falls later. Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay also might have a few showers – track on rain radar for the best detail.

Isolated downpours again form over the central/inland North Island with heat and humidity meaning afternoon thunderstorms are also possible. Some showery weather remains in West Coast but it’s dry in the east with cooler days from Kaikoura to Dunedin. A few showers are possible in Southland too.

For northern NZ the muggy weather comes with a chance of maximum temperatures in the low 30s and Humidex (feels like) temperatures in the late 30s or 40c.

Cooler airflows start to shift in across Sunday and Monday over the South Island up to the lower North Island, then after Tuesday further north – easing the mugginess. Our new app shows hourly humidity levels and temperatures in easy to view graph form (free to view) and the PRO (paid) version allows you to customise multiple alerts for temperatures across four locations to get push notifications on your device. See below for more details.

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If you’re camping in a tent or awning then please download our new App (use the QR code above or click the link below!) so you can see wind gust graphs at your location.

(FYI: winds of 20km/h+ and gusts 40km/h+ can be frustrating when in a tent or awning.

You can even make the most of the 2 month Free Trial for the PRO alerting version (cancel anytime) and play around with creating your own camping alerts this summer. (you set the criteria and over time you can learn to calibrate it/adjust it to suit).

Please Note: Rain Alerts are very much part of our our PRO alerting app – but do read the FAQ in the app’s left hand menu. Despite our rain forecast data being most accurate, the Government allows for significant limitations and restrictions be placed on public rain radar data being used in any real time or future weather forecasts. The FAQ explains strengths and weaknesses in NZ’s current rain forecasting capabilities, regardless of who the forecast provider is. It also explains how your support of the app’s PRO version will help fund WeatherWatch to develop real time rain-radar alerts into NZ, for the first time ever). The isolated heavy downpours that form in this current weather can be hard to perfectly forecast without realtime rain radar data also used – were working with MetService on this.

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Maps most relevant today are…

• Possible MetService Watches and Warnings
• Live Rain Radar
• NZ Cumulative Rainfall next several days
• Animated Temperature Maps

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DOWNLOAD our new FREE App for the most detailed and hyper-local forecasts in NZ. Upgrade to the PRO Alerting version and trial it Free for 2 months, cancel anytime. Details here.

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The new cyclone forming over the #CoralSea looks more likely to hit #QLD late next week.

Twice this week modelling had NZ directly in the firing line – but, high pressure over the Tasman may act like a fielder in cricket, sliding in to catch & stop it.🏏

"!" = Severe Weather. pic.twitter.com/RTCQEjfED6

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 19, 2024

WeatherWatch.co.nz – Daily Newsfeed