Aussie bushfires light up the sky over Lower North Island

Sunday, 10 November 2019

Wellingtonians have experienced a spectacular sunrise as a large dust cloud from the Australian bushfires sweeps across the Tasman Sea.

The cloud is expected to hang around until Monday when a southerly will hit much of  New Zealand.

MetService duty forecaster Andrew James described the sunrise as 'stunning' but said that rain and cloud means Wellingtonians may miss out on seeing the sunset tonight.

The prospects for Monday morning are little brighter but it is not clear what the impact of the southerly change will be.

Sunsets and sunrises appear brighter due to the smoke particles reflecting in the light at that time of day.

The cloud can still be seen by radar and he said the orange skies will hang around until the weather changes.

Although there is also a large fire burning in the South Island that is having no impact on our weather.

On Saturday night, there were more than 80 fires burning across New South Wales, with two fires at emergency warning levels.