Weather News

Low but far reaching

Bob Neil, Saturday March 11, 2017 - 14:53 AEDT

Auckland has had nearly double its average March rainfall in just a few days, the wind is blowing, the swell is brewing and there's more to come.

A complex low pressure system that has been sitting over the Tasman Sea for most of the last week, driving large swell along Australia's NSW coast has also been buffeting northern New Zealand with surges of heavy rain and gale force winds.

Today is no exception, with Severe Weather Warnings and a Severe Thunderstorm Watch once more current on Saturday for northwestern areas including the capital. In the 24 hours to midnight Friday, 43mm fell in Auckland with another 31mm to midday Saturday, taking the total from the last few days to well over the long term average of 61mm for the whole of March.

Heavy swells are being driven towards the west coast with the movement of the low with a northerly swell expected to reach 3m by tomorrow morning.

This pattern will continue through the weekend with a further 50-70mm of rain possible for the region on Sunday before the focus of the severe weather shifts to the upper South Island on Monday.

The low, in all its complex guises, is finally expected to move away to the east on Tuesday.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2017

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