Heavy rain warnings for Auckland and much of the North Island

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Heavy rain is forecast to pour across the top half of the North Island, while heavy snow is forecast for some of the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne ranges.

Temperatures are also dropping sharply as southerlies move up the country.

MetService has issued a severe weather warning for heavy rain in many parts of the North Island, with Northland, Auckland, and Waikato affected  for at least the afternoon.

Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, and Waikato are expected by Metservice to have 60-80 millimetres further rainfall. Taupō ,Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, and the Gisborne Ranges are due 110-160 millimetres of rain until the early hours of Friday.

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* Auckland warned to expect heavy rain, localised downpours on Thursday**

The rest of Gisborne is expected to get around 90-120 millimetres of rain overnight, while in northern Hawke's Bay heavy rain should fall from early afternoon until the Friday around 4am.

Coromandel and the rest of Gisborne are expected to get a reasonable amount of rain overnight, while in northern Hawke's Bay heavy rain could start falling from early afternoon.

In contrast, Wellington is expected to stay dry until evening - following the 28.4mm that fell in the central city on Wednesday. But the temperature in the capital dropped overnight and was around 12C at 6am, and not forecast to get any warmer during the morning.

'Most places in the upper North Island are under a heavy rain warning. It's quite intense rain as well, short duration,' Glassey said.

'There's lots of moisture coming down from the north, and it's unusually humid for this time of year. So there is the potential for some bursts of very heavy rain, specially in the upper North Island.'

The arrival of southerlies in the South Island brings temperatures crashing down after Wednesday's record or near record highs for July.

Christchurch reached 20 degrees Celsius on Wednesday but by around 5.30am Thursday was down to 4C, having been 12C at 2am.

Ashburton was the warmest place in the country on Wednesday, getting to 21.6C in the strong northerlies - only 0.3C below the July record - but could struggle to get into double figures on Thursday.

Dunedin, which broke its July record with 20.3C, is only expected to reach 9C.

'Over most of the North Island at the moment it's a northerly, but as the front moves across, then behind that front it's going to bring southerlies over the entire country for the next few days,' Glassey said shortly after 5am Thursday.

'It's gone sort of southwest already over most of the South Island.'

MetService is also forecasting snow lowering to 900 metres this evening from Whirinaki to Kaweka Forest Parks, as strong southerlies blow in.

There's a risk of heavy snow overnight for the Gisborne and Hawke's Bay ranges between Napier and Gisborne city.

Heavy rain which fell in Taranaki on Wednesday is expected to ease.

Glassey said Inglewood had 123.5mm in the 24 hours to 5am Thursday, Stratford had 85.5mm and a weather station at an elevation of 930 metres on Mt Taranaki recorded 289mm.