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A windy, wet Monday is forecast for much of the country to start the week. (File photo)
Autumn has arrived, the air is cooling down and much of New Zealand will have a damp start to the week, with strong wind and rain watches in place.
Metservice has upgraded a warning for the Tararua Ranges, between the Hutt Valley and Palmerston North, to an orange heavy rain warning, while the Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough regions are on watch for strong winds.
The Buller District on the West Coast is also issued with a heavy rain watch.
Metservice forecaster Luis Fernandes said the country is starting to see “the return of a westerly system” where cold systems move up the country from the south, bringing wet weather and heavy rain.
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“The North island has really born the brunt of the bad weather in the last months with systems coming down from the tropics, things have changed in the last couple of weeks,” Fernandes said.
The Tararua Range’s heavy rain warning eases at 4pm Monday, but 60 to 90mm of rain is expected to accumulate before that and thunderstorms are possible.
Fernandes said that the worst should be “confined to the ranges of the mountains”.
The Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough regions are all expecting strong northwest winds on Monday that don’t ease until afternoon, and may approach severe 90kmh gales in exposed places, Metservice warns.
Despite the wet weather, all three areas are expected to reach early 20Cs.
Caleb Smith/Supplied
Tararua Range on a cloudy day with poor weather conditions. (File photo)
On the West Coast, before lunchtime a period of heavy rain with possible thunderstorms is forecast for the Buller region, expected to still hit 20C in Westport on Monday.
The heavy rain watch previously in place for the headwaters of the Otago and Canterbury lakes and rivers south of Mt Cook has been lifted.
Main centres Christchurch and Dunedin are still both in for a day of showers however, with 20C forecast for Christchurch and 17C for their south counterparts.
Scattered showers, mainly towards the west, is forecast for Auckland, which expected to reach 23C.
The Hawke’s Bay region will warm up with mostly fine 27C days for both Napier and Hastings, with just a chance of showers in the afternoon.
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