Severe weather watches and warnings for regions across New Zealand have been issued by MetService on Sunday morning.
According to MetService, a low-pressure system is predicted to move across the upper North Island, which is expected to bring a period of heavy rain and gale-force winds.
Heavy rain watches are now in place for Northland, Auckland’s North Shore, Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island.
A rain watch has been put in place for 9 hours, from 12pm to 9pm on Monday, with a wind watch expected to last from 12pm to 5pm for Northland and 2pm to 7pm for Auckland.
According to MetService, the heavy rain has a chance of turning to snow in southern Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Matawai to the Kaimanawa Kaweka Forest Parks and eastern Taupō, where a heavy snow watch has been put in place.
A heavy snow watch is in place in the area for six hours from 8pm on Monday to 2am on Tuesday.
A period of snowfall above 800 metres is expected with MetService warning that accumulations could lead to dangerous amounts. A lighter fall of 600 metres is expected.
A road snowfall warning has been issued for the Desert Road and is expected to last for ten hours from 5pm on Monday to 3am on Tuesday. MetService is telling motorists in the region to expect six to 10cm of snow on the roads above 900 meters, with less further down.
Strong wind warnings have also been issued for coastal parts of Clutha, Southland and Stewart Island. Strong wind watches have been established for Canterbury High Country, parts of Otago (except North Otago) and Southland.
The strong winds in these regions are expected to last eight hours starting at 9am on Sunday.
A heavy wind watch has been put in place for Taranaki and is expected to last nine hours from 10pm on Monday.
Eastern parts of Bay of Plenty and Taupō have been issued strong wind watches that are predicted to be in place for 10 hours from 10pm to 8am on Tuesday.
The latest warnings comes just weeks after southern and northern parts of the country were hit hard by devastating storms, causing floods and damage to property.
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