Our first long weekend in around five months is finally upon us and most of you should love the forecast!

Thanks to an enormous area of high pressure most places look calm, dry and mild by day. The high is currently over the Tasman Sea and across the weekend will slowly transition more so over New Zealand.

The forecast isn’t entirely perfect, we do see a few showers popping up around the upper North Island and some cloud and showers smudging the lower South Island for a time perhaps on Sunday or Monday, bringing a slight drop in temperatures in Dunedin by Monday.

For the most part the long weekend is both drier than average and by day warmer than average in many regions, especially inland. The nights may still be fairly cool though, especially inland.

WILL THIS FORECAST CHANGE?
It is the middle of spring so changeable weather should always be expected, however this high is very powerful and dominant and so isn’t expected to dramatically change. The biggest weakness in the forecast at this stage appears to be the shower risk for the upper North Island inland. We have seen some updates showing some big downpours, others showing just a couple isolated small showers.

In the lower South Island a front in the Southern Ocean may brush Southland, Fiordland and Otago late Sunday but it looks very weak – especially if the high over the rest of the country stays strong. But if the high weakens, even just a little, it may allow this front to stay a bit more intact as it nicks the lower part of NZ. 

TRAVEL WEATHER:
If you’re going by road, air, sea or rail the weather looks POSITIVE both heading away on Friday PM & Saturday AM and returning Monday PM.

FRIDAY 4PM:

SATURDAY 1PM:

SUNDAY 1PM:

LABOUR DAY MONDAY 1PM:

– Maps by MetOcean

– WeatherWatch.co.nz