South Island in for wild, wet, and windy weather to end of the week

The South Island is in for heavy rain and severe gales to end the working week, with the wet and windy weather likely to continue into the long weekend.

A trough is moving over the South Island on Wednesday, followed by an active front – which is bringing the bad weather, MetService meteorologist Alwyn Bakker said.

Watches and warnings for heavy rain and severe gales were in force for parts of the South Island from Wednesday evening, while the north remained relatively fine.

“Of the two, the North Island wins the best weather competition,” Bakker said. It would be relatively fine with a few showers hanging around Auckland on Wednesday, and moving south on Thursday.

READ MORE:
* Weather warnings and watches in place for South Canterbury
* The ‘worst is over’ for Auckland and Northland, rain moving back towards Coromandel and Bay of Plenty
* Heavy rain warning extended across the top of the South

Bakker said some stormy weather would arrive in the South Island on Wednesday, but the worst of it would kick off on Thursday.

It was a “long rain event” with bad weather likely to continue into the long weekend, Bakker added.

MetService warned that the heavy rain and possible thunderstorms could cause streams and rivers to rise rapidly, with surface flooding and slips also possible.

There was an orange heavy rain warning for Westland, south of Otira, Fiordland, and the headwaters of the Canterbury lakes and rivers about and south of Arthur’s Pass.

The warning in Fiordland went from noon on Wednesday to 9pm on Thursday, with periods where rainfall could reach 150 to 200mm. The heaviest falls would be north of Doubtful Sound.

In Westland, the warning was in place from 6pm on Wednesday to 2am on Friday. People could expect periods of heavy rain, with 160 to 220mm to fall about the ranges and 80 to 120mm nearer the coast.

The warning around the headwaters of the Canterbury lakes and rivers was in place from 8am on Thursday, till 2am on Friday. Between 120 and 160mm of rain was forecast about the divide, with 80 to 100mm within 20 kilometres east of the divide.

There was a heavy rain watch predicting possible heavy rain and thunderstorms for Westland, about and north of Otira, Buller, and Tasman west of Takaka, from 6pm on Thursday to 6am on Friday.

There was another for the headwaters of the Otago lakes and rivers from 6am to 10pm on Thursday.

A strong wind watch was in place for Canterbury High Country from noon on Thursday to noon on Friday, with another for Otago, excluding North Otago, Fiordland, and Southland, from noon to midnight on Thursday.

Northwest winds might approach severe gale in exposed places, especially inland and about higher ground.

The temperature was picked to reach a high of 17C in Auckland on Wednesday – the last day of Autumn – with Thursday hitting 19C. It would reach 16C in Hamilton, with a high of 18C expected on Thursday.

In Wellington, it would only rise to 15C on Wednesday, lifting to 17C on Thursday, while Christchurch would hit a high of 16C on Wednesday, lifting to 19C the next day.