Despite all the rain in some parts of New Zealand, most regions are still drier than they should be for this time of year – although, granted, it is getting much wetter underfoot for many. The North Island has had the most amount of rain relief in recent weeks, and over the past week it’s been the upper South Island’s turn to get some too.
While rainfall has started to return to normal, most parts of the country are still not where they should be, following on from a dry summer and autumn. Canterbury remains the driest part of NZ from a soil moisture point of view, being in the rain shadow for most of the rain events this year. While Canterbury and Otago are often two of our driest regions in winter, they are both drier than normal – but it’s especially Canterbury that is dry.
The lower North Island is also still leaning drier than usual – southern coastal Taranaki, Manawatū, Horowhenua and Wairarapa are all drier than usual right now. East Cape and Gisborne are also still leaning drier. Hawke’s Bay is looking pretty good – but also is leaning a little drier west of Napier and Hastings into the ranges.
However, rain has returned to many other districts, with Northland having intense rain in the past week – and the Far North also getting rain after missing out on other rain events.
Temperatures have been down by day, but up by night for some. The cloudier, sometimes windier, weather can make for cooler than average days – but also milder than normal nights as it removes the clear skies and calm conditions that produce frosts or near freezing temperatures.
Sometimes we can have warmer than average weather that feels cold and bleak because the days are miserable, but the nights are milder – so overall the monthly temperature for your region may not be as far below normal as you might think.
Low pressure has been affecting NZ for over a week and may have more days to go. A lot of people have asked me what has broken or gone wrong with our weather – but to me this is the usual chaos we get in a neutral season, especially as we come out of the El Niño weather pattern.
If you think of high pressure zones as slow moving trucks, and lows as cars that can’t overtake them, then it can perhaps make more sense as to why we can have a low pressure zone stuck over NZ for almost two weeks.
In May we had high pressure that lingered for weeks – but if you lived in Sydney you had cloud, rain and colder air. For every action there is a reaction, so the low stuck over us usually means there are highs stuck nearby too, giving somewhere else the settled, sunnier, weather.
Highlights this week
• Low pressure finally breaks up and clears (for a time)
• High pressure returns mid to late week (briefly)
• Messier forecast from this weekend onwards (more low pressure around NZ)
