‘Prolonged period’ of heavy rain for some already sodden areas, raising risk of flooding, slips

Rain falling over several days in already sodden areas of the northern and central North Island could cause surface flooding and slips, MetService says.

Heavy rain and possible thunderstorms are forecast from Northland to northern Auckland, and southwards to western Bay of Plenty as well as northern Tairāwhiti/Gisborne, the Central Hawke’s Bay ranges and eastern Marlborough.

MetService has issued an orange heavy rain warning for Tairāwhiti/Gisborne abou and north of Tolaga Bay from 3pm on Wednesday to 3pm on Thursday.

There were also heavy rain watches for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, the Ruahine Range and Kaweka Forest Park and Eastern Marlborough.

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The rain was expected to hit Northland first, with the heavy rain watch in place from 9am Wednesday to 4am on Thursday.

“Heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, bursts of really intense periods of rain, and also some rather strong gusty winds through parts of Northland through the [Wednesday] morning and the afternoon,” MetService meteorologist John Law said.

“Racing down towards Auckland through the evening time and at night.”

In Auckland from Whangaparaoa north and including Great Barrier Island, a heavy rain watch was in place from 9pm Wednesday to 9am on Thursday.

Law said on Wednesday night wet weather would be “piling in” towards the Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay and up into Gisborne, and even down towards Wairarapa.

In Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty west of Te Puke there was a heavy rain watch in place from 1am on Thursday till 12pm on Friday.

There was another in the Ruahine Range and Kaweka Forest Park from 3am on Thursday to midnight on Thursday and in Eastern Marlborough, south of Ward, from 3pm on Thursday to 6pm on Saturday.

The heavy rain in the next few days was connected to a low pressure system expected to move onto northern New Zealand from the Tasman Sea on Friday then move away to the east over the weekend.

It would bring a prolonged period of wet weather for some northern and eastern parts of the North Island, MetService said.

MetService also has moderate confidence of more heavy rain in Tairawhiti/Gisborne from Friday through to Sunday, and of heavy rain in Hawke’s Bay on Thursday and Friday.

Auckland was to reach a high of 17C on Wednesday, with Hamilton to hit 16C and Wellington forecast to reach 15C.

In Christchurch the high was a chilly 12C, with Dunedin to reach 13C.