Heavy rain warnings will be in place for much of central New Zealand as the remnants of a tropical cyclone are forecast to approach over the weekend.
Tropical Cyclone Dovi is forecast to cross the centre of the country on Sunday with a preceding band of heavy rain expected to hit by Friday afternoon. The cyclone is currently northwest of New Zealand near New Caledonia.
MetService is forecasting heavy rain and severe gales in central and northern New Zealand.
Heavy rain warnings will be in place from Friday and Saturday for Wellington, Taranaki, Wairarapa (excluding Tararua District), Tasman (west of Motueka), Marlborough Sounds, Horowhenua, Kapiti and Tongariro National Park area.
“We have a tropical system like this moving over New Zealand every year or so, but it’s quite unusual for it to path towards the west coast of the North Island like it appears Dovi will,” MetService said on Twitter.
Strong wind watches have also be issued for Auckland and Northland on Saturday and Sunday.
In addition, MetService said swell warnings may be issued with the tropical cyclone potentially bringing hazardous cross and rip currents.
Meanwhile WeatherWatch said the tropical cyclone is expected to be downgraded to a category two as it reaches New Zealand.
It had been reclassified as a category three cyclone on Friday morning.
“While it will have a lot of intense energy as it moves southwards over the Tasman Sea, it is expected to unravel over New Zealand,” WeatherWatch said.
“But that means it will dump a lot of rain here and as it ‘falls apart’ it will also bring areas of damaging gales into both main islands.”
Earlier, the tropical cyclone had forced dozens in New Caledonia and Vanuatu to evacuate their homes as a result of significant flooding.
The full details and list of locations with weather warnings resulting from Cyclone Dovi can be found on the MetService website.
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