Weather update….here’s how this system is shaping up. Repeat, its likely to bring heavy rain and snow to Cant and Otago, and Southland might miss out.
Mal.
Here’s where the severe weather on the way later today and tomorrow is coming from. A complex low is set to move across New Zealand.
Right now there is one main low centre just west of Fiordland, but several waves on the occluded front leading into it. This ‘occluded front’ – from the latin word occludere, meaning ‘shut up’ or ‘hidden’ – marks warm air streaming down from the tropics above the surface.
The front is ‘hidden’ because the warm air doesn’t reach the surface, but is not hidden from the satellite! A wave on this front is set to develop a new low centre later today, which moves across central New Zealand with the older low rotating around it. With the new low centre tracking over central NZ we can expect:
Strong northeasterly gales over the upper North Island, from Northland to Gisborne
Heavy rain in those northeasterlies for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua
On Friday southeasterlies pick up for the eastern South Island as the low moves across. These pull the warm air down from the tropics and around, onto the land. This means heavy rain, and snow above 400 or 500m for Canterbury and Otago.
Full details on all this severe weather on http://bit.ly/SWWarnings and http://bit.ly/SWWatch