Brace yourself for more wild wet weather across New Zealand

Monday, 9 July 2018

Storm clouds lift over Tasman Bay after heavy rain over the weekend.

It is a wet and windy start to the week, with snow picked to fall in lower south on Tuesday.

On Monday afternoon much of the west of the North Island is at risk of heavy showers and severe thunderstorms, with a chance that some of the storms could become severe, producing damaging winds gusting to more than 110kmh and possibly a small tornado.

Nelson Coastguard were called to rescue a yacht run aground in the Nelson Haven. The boat had been dragging its mooring, becoming alarmingly close to hitting other moored vessels in its path.

MetService said rain and severe thunderstorms threatening many western areas of the North Island, including northern Wellington, Kāpiti Coast, Horowhenua, Taranaki, Taumarunui, Waitomo, Waikato and South Auckland on Monday afternoon.

Met Service warns that wind gusts more than 110kmh can cause some structural damage, including trees and powerlines, and may make driving hazardous.

Flooding and slips last night disrupted traffic and power in the Hutt Valley area.

* Power cuts and road closures around region after wild night

In Wellington's Akatarawa a large pine tree came down severing power lines and the electricity supply to nearly 70 homes.

* Yacht breaks mooring as Nelson region hit by wild weather

* Stream bank management critical during wet winter weather**

During Monday morning, a trough moves onto the far south of the South Island, followed by a change to cooler southwesterly winds.

What's the weather like in your patch? Send tips, photos and videos to newstips@stuff.co.nz

MetService had issued several wind or rain warnings for overnight Sunday. By 5am Monday they were mostly 'on their last legs' but there was still a rain warning for the Tararua Range during Monday, MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said.

Snow showers could affect higher roads, including the Desert Rd and Lewis Pass at the start of the week (file photo).

'We had a band of rain - it was quite a narrow band of rain - move across the North Island in the overnight period. Behind this has given was to a very unstable westerly flow,' Loots said.

'Embedded in this flow we're seeing showers and isolated thunder showers. That's going to be the story for much of the day.'

A slip in Wellington's Akatarawa Valley to Waikanae Rd blocked traffic.

Overnight some heavier showers had fallen on the West Coast, and in the Nelson region. A thunderstorm moved through New Plymouth, and there were one or two rattles of thunder around Wellington.

A cold front would be moving over the South Island during Monday: 'That's going to bring much colder conditions there, and a colder southwest change and snow lowering to 600 metres,' Loots said.

An active front could bring heavy rain, gales and localised tornadoes to many parts of New Zealand on Monday (file photo).

'Into the following day, that southwest flow spreads over the whole country. We're going to see cooler conditions for the whole country going into Tuesday.'

WIND, SLIPS, POWER BLACKOUTS, SNOW

High winds buffeting the country have closed Mt Hutt and Porters skifields as well as the Upper Buller Gorge in the South Island.

MetService warned motorists to take care when travelling along parts of State Highway 6 on the West Coast due to a number of slips.

About 49.4mm of rain had fallen in Westport in the last 30 hours up to 8am Monday.

Slips in Meybille Bay on SH6 Westport to Greymouth, SH6 near Fox River and SH6 near Lower Buller Gorge had all reduced the road to one lane.

In the 12 hours from 9pm Sunday to 9am Monday a further 70 to 100mm of rain was expected to accumulate about the Westland ranges with a possible 40 to 60mm elsewhere on top of what has already fallen.

At its peak intensity rainfall of 15 to 25mm was expected to fall per hour, and thunderstorms were possible.

Snowfall had closed State Highway 94 between Te Anau and Milford Sound on Sunday afternoon but it has now reopened after snow conditions cleared after 11am. An NZTA spokesman said the forecast remains for snow to fall in the area and further road closures were possible.

In Wellington, wild weather conditions had seen almost 70 homes without power in the Akatarawa Valley on Monday morning. Residents faced a long wait to have electricity restored with slips cutting off access. A large pine tree came down severing the power lines below.

Wellington Electricity was warning it could take up to 13 hours to restore power to the area in Upper Hutt, with slips blocking two access roads.

'We are working with local councils to have the slips cleared so our trucks can access the area and we can restore power as soon as possible,' the power provider's website said.

Block Rd in Lower Hutt was also closed on Monday morning because of the weather, as was Grays Rd in Plimmerton.

Wellington, which had almost 50mm of rain on Sunday, is expected to get to just 12 degrees Celsius, with heavy and possibly thundery showers, and gale northerlies easing. Christchurch is expected to stay dry during the day, with a high of 13C and strong northerlies.

On Monday, Auckland is expected to have some heavy showers, with a possibility of gale westerlies in exposed places and a high of 16C.

The wet and windy weather on Monday morning, follows a wet weekend, which had flooding and a handful of road closures.

In Waikato, a wet soggy Monday has left hundreds of homes without power. Electricity is out to 684 properties north of Huntly in the Kimihia area. In Hillcrest around 55 homes are without power due to an unplanned outage.

In Huntly, strong winds brought down a tree onto powerlines and a truck smashed into a bank on SH39 near Pirongia.

Rain is expected to continue in Hamilton through until Wednesday this week.

While Nelson was battered by heavy rain and considerable swells on Sunday afternoon, Coastguard Nelson volunteers were called to rescue a yacht run aground in the Nelson Haven.

Once the Coastguard Rescue Vessel and the Nelson Surf Life Saving Club vessels were on scene, the yacht was sitting on up the rocks of the Boulder Bank.

The yacht was towed to a new mooring. Fortunately, nobody was on-board the vessel at the time and there appeared to be no damage to the hull or any other vessel in its path.

Elsewhere, a police spokesperson said there had been reports of a tree blocking the road at Eighty-Eight Valley, south of Nelson around 6.45am on Monday morning.

SH 6 between Murchison to Inangahua in the Upper Buller Gorge reopened at 11am on Monday. A NZTA spokesman said surface flooding on SH 6 between Inangahua and Westport was cleared just after 11.12am.

In Golden Bay, heavy rain had caused the Aorere and Takaka Rivers to ride significantly, with surface flooding reported between Collingwood and Ferntown on Sunday.

For Tuesday, MetService is forecasting snow to lower to 1000 metres in the North Island, while on Wednesday it could lower to 200m in the south of the South Island.