WINDS RETURN TO NORTHERN NZ SUNDAY

Floods waters Saturday afternoon near Kerikeri. Photo: Laura Jerome.

Winds, which eased early Saturday evening, have returned but to a lesser degree Sunday morning across northern regions of New Zealand as the storm moves eastward. At 7am the eye of this weekend’s major storm was over East Cape as expected. Head Weather Analyst Philip Duncan says the storm has weakened overnight. “The low wont get any deeper while over New Zealand. The worst is definitely over for Auckland and Northland”.

The severe weather returned to Northland overnight with gusts late in the evening to 174km/h but has now eased back to 110km.

“Winds will ease again from the west during this afternoon with only the North Island’s east coast coping the full brunt right up until Monday morning. Cold, wet, southerlies will make for a miserable Sunday along the North Island’s east coast”.

The low is expected to deepen again out in the Pacific off Gisborne’s coast with huge seas developing. “Massive waves will line the North Island’s east coast with north eastern parts of the South Island seeing large waves on Monday”.

Power outages were reported on Saturday night from Eastern Waikato to Northland with over 50,000 people without power across Auckland.

Saturday also saw winds over 165km/h blasting the east coast of northern New Zealand from the Hauraki Gulf to the Bay of Islands and 135km/h gusts were clocked in Auckland Harbour.

The air pressure dropped to 962.9hPa at Cape Reinga on Saturday afternoon and in Auckland at 7pm it was at 972.2hPa.

MetService has issued further warnings for the North Island, they can be found in the weather section at www.newstalkzb.co.nz

Meanwhile another big storm in the northern Tasman Sea is predicted for early to mid next week travelling on a similar path except slightly further south which could see heavy rain over western and northern regions of both islands. “We’ll release more details on this storm during Sunday afternoon but at this stage it will affect northern, central and westerns parts of both Islands with severe gales and torrential rain”.

Before you add a new comment, take note this story was published on 26 Jul 2008.

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ANGELA STUART on 1/08/2008 2:49am

Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, under a mixture of weather today from clear sunshine to hail, and then still and calm to raging winds.

WW Forecast Team on 1/08/2008 3:00am

And tomorrow will be even more full on/exciting!

Phil.

Brendan Pratt on 26/07/2008 8:54pm

Hi there, after a windy night, its all calm here this morning at 8:50am, is it all over? or is the more wind and rain to come to but from the south?

This is a awesome site… keeps you to date with whats happen, keep it up

Brendan.

Guest Kerry on 26/07/2008 12:35pm

it is wild and wooly out there right now, what is going to happen with this tide around 2.30am, the seas are running high it might be dark out there, but you can see the white foam everywhere.

LJ on 26/07/2008 12:11pm

it’s very very windy again here. We had total calm for a few hours, but not any more! Have lost one big tree and lots of branches. A lot of flooding and it’s all very wet! Still got power though so managed to watch the rugby, worse luck!
good luck tonight everyone. Thanks Phil and co x

Alison on 26/07/2008 11:13am

We were all excited, looking forward to a decent storm and then it has the nerve to bypass us! Its all very quiet here in Papakura, a little too quiet…. Heres hoping we get some decent storm action here as the lightning storm the other night bypassed us too.

WW Forecast Team on 26/07/2008 11:30am

I’m sure the 55,000 Aucklanders who don’t have power tonight don’t feel ripped off…come to think of it, they actually probably feel more ripped off! 🙂

Don’t worry – the western side of the low is now making landfall…gusts to 174km/h in the Far North and the Weather Watch Centre and MetService both expect Auckland to get very stormy again overnight.

Guest Kerry on 26/07/2008 9:42am

Reporting in from Coopers Beach, we lost power about 5.30am back on again 1.30.pm. Had about 85mls of rain, and we were fairly sheltered from the wind, the blues skies and sun were very welcome and lasted about an hour, then it all started again, not much rain, but the winds are from the SW now, and fairly strong, the waves are a good size, but all in all we have coped well…. But have been informed Wednesday will be even better for us, according to the locals.. even bigger seas and winds, Your comments would be appreciated

ps Hope you got some sleep

WW Forecast Team on 26/07/2008 9:51am

What on earth is "sleep"? haha! I am on automatic pilot at the moment…been going since 6am. Just thought I was about to relax and watch the rugby (I’m lucky enough to have power) but just realised the tail end of the storm is moving in.

As with all major storms, the centre is a very calm place….the gales have eased over northern NZ in the past hour or so…but now, as the low moves out to the East, the severe gales on the western side of the low will quickly move in. IN fact, in the past hour winds have climbed back up to 161km/h at Cape Reinga. Gales will move back in to Auckland tonight, but from the south west quadrant.

I’m having a drink now…!!

Thanks for the feedback from Coopers Beach. Very interesting. Will have details on next weeks storm later on Sunday.

richardmcb on 26/07/2008 9:23am

As the wind has changed direction, I presume the ‘eye of the storm’ has passed over us. Just a little ahead of the predicted 11:00pm tonight.

We live on a lifestyle block in the Waitakeries and have probably lost a tree or two, I guess tomorrow will show.

The Easterlie is the one that ormally hits us the hardest as we are a bit protected from the West – South/West.

All to the good, more firewood for next year and no doubt a lot more pine cones for this!

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