Localised downpours and strong winds are expected to set in tomorrow, as MetService forecasts another rain event that will start in the North Island and then move south.
Head of Weather Communications at MetService, Lisa Murray, said it will be a rainfall event for all New Zealand.
She said Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and the east of the North Island will see rain first and parts of the South Island may also see another drop of snow.
“It’s a big enough event that everywhere will see rain from Thursday evening up North and by Friday it will be over most of the country.
“Due to the colder temps over the South Island, today and tomorrow may even bring snow.”
Murray said weather models were being run across this week to track the incoming low, which is arriving off the Tasman.
“The way the models are looking, there is a chance localised areas will see 40mm of rain in an hour,” she said.
She said the incoming weather event is faster moving than previous events.
“It won’t stall for days, the difference is the whole system is westerly whereas the previous events were more northerly. The rain will come through, then possible thunderstorms due to air instability,” she said.
For the Crown Range region, snow is forecast from this evening and early Thursday morning, and 2 or 4 cm of snow may settle on the road above 800 metres.
Metservice has issued a heavy rain warning already for Fiordland through until 8pm tonight and for Westland from midday today, through until 6am tomorrow as a separate weather system brings in downpours.
A heavy rain and strong wind watch is in place for Northland from tomorrow afternoon until the early hours of Friday morning.
Further updates are expected today for other regions.
It comes as MetService today released a never-before-seen graph which shows 2023's Auckland rainfall measure as the most significant since records began.
“Each blue squiggle represents a year and the black dotted line is the average rainfall per year,” she explained.
“Since records began, every year on record so far has been within that band and here in 2023 we are nowhere near that band.”
Murray said the North Island will likely get a reprieve on Friday “but the low pressure system comes through again and as the centre of the low then passes over Saturday, it’s looking like there will be another band of thunderstorms”.
“It’s a big weather event that’s normal for this time of year but the problem is we are already so saturated,” she said.
On 9 May, a state of emergency was declared in Auckland due to heavy rain battering the region, which experienced widespread floods and delays to the transport network. Some Aucklanders were once again evacuated as their homes flooded.
A Whangārei Boys' High School student died during a caving trip the same day, when a group of year 11 students and accompanying adults got into difficulty at Abbey Caves near Whangārei when the region was hit by heavy rain.
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