NZ: Long weekend weather + outlook as June starts

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-04

[00:00:08]C. Hello. It's Friday the 29th of May and for most of us we're going into a long weekend and the weather is going to go a bit downhill in some locations. So, let's try and break it down for you. On the satellite imagery, the main feature is low pressure leaving New South Wales.

[00:00:23]All these thunderstorms out at sea, but we've still got high pressure over New Zealand at the moment. That's why we've got some areas with gloomy weather, some clouds, some fog. Other places are a bit sunnier, though. So, we've got settled weather around New Zealand at the moment. And that high pressure zone is slowly moving out to the east. So, that is the high here at 6:00 this evening.

[00:00:43]Uh, smack bang over the central part of New Zealand. So, light winds right across the nation. The low pressure zone linking up with more low pressure south of Australia. And there's plenty more low pressure uh coming in for southern parts of Australia and on towards New Zealand once we get to the month of June. And it all begins this long weekend. So let's have a look at the forecast going into Saturday. And it's a pretty good day in most places, but it will be a bit cloudy, especially in northern and western areas as that low pressure center moves closer towards us.

[00:01:12]So there could be varying amounts of cloud around the country. Still some sunny spells. Take a look at your local forecast for more details. High pressure still over the North Island to some degree, but it is moving eastwards. And now we're going to get this warmer northerly wind, which will probably be most noticeable during the overnight temperatures, which have been down in recent weeks. They're going to jump up this weekend. Double digit overnight lows coming for some even in the deep south by the time we get into about Sunday. Uh there are a few showers around Bay Planty, Coramando Peninsula, and up around Northland. One or two might sneak into Oakland or uh surrounding areas like Wato, but it's generally dry. Couple of showers around Tasmin and further southwards southwestland and Fjordland getting some showers or a little bit of patchy rain developing there. Dry weather in the east and mostly dry in the lower North Island. Here is noon Sunday. So, we've got the rain now setting in on the west coast. Heavy falls. Keep up to date with the Met Service. Uh we've also got some strong winds developing from the north to northwest depending on where you are around the country. Heavy rain starts to form around Nelson and Tasmin going through Sunday. And we've got a bit of wet weather in the very north of New Zealand, but still some large dry areas.

[00:02:23]Mount Tatanaki, you know, the ranges in the hills most likely to get some of those heavier falls. Uh but we are still seeing a fair bit of dry weather coming through on Sunday morning. going into the afternoon, uh, those the risk of those showers does start to increase.

[00:02:37]So, as we go to Monday, this is a 24-hour rainfall map. So, it goes from noon Sunday to noon Monday. Heavy rain on the west coast, 150 mm or more in some central locations up in the mountains and around Tasmin 150 millimeters and that's not normal uh every weekend. So, there is some heavy rain risk there which could cause localized flooding or slips. So, just be aware of that. It comes right over to Nelson and fades out as it goes more so into Malra. So the top of the South Island, the west coast most exposed to the heavy rain. In the North Island, it's around Mount Tanaki and Northland.

[00:03:12]Gradually going through the day, remember this rainfall map only goes to lunchtime Monday. So as we go into the second half of Monday, that wet weather you see to the north will start to move on in. So areas like Coramando Peninsula Bay are plenty at this stage from uh Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon.

[00:03:30]don't have huge rainfall totals and the eastern areas are the driest. As we go to Tuesday, again, 24 hours of rainfall from noon Monday to noon Tuesday. Now, you're seeing a 100 millimeter potential, quite a narrow line coming into Northland and parts of Oakland.

[00:03:46]That's likely to be uh it's either going to be a band of rain or a band of uh heavy thunderstorms and showers developing. So, that's just one to keep an eye on. your local weather forecast that we've got at weather watch or rural weather. We'll be able to make more sense of it for you as we go through the weekend because things are going to move around a wee bit as we go into Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Some heavy rain around the central plateau and another 100 millimeters coming in around uh the Tasmin region and going into Nelson and still some heavy rain on the west coast. So, it's a slowm moving kind of feature and that's why you're hearing about the heavy rain and the strong winds coming through this weekend. But if you're in eastern areas, places like Hawks Bay, Gisbon, Tidafi, Canterbury, most of Canterbury, although northern areas might get some rain and uh around Otago, those are the driest areas as we go through the weekend. And there's also a change from those subtropical northerlys to more of a westerly flow coming through as we go into Tuesday. By Wednesday, it's all moved on. This is not a 24-hour rainfall mat. This is just the snapshot at lunchtime Wednesday. Wee bit of high pressure to the north. Most of that wet weather has moved out to the east and it looks less dramatic because it's not showing 24 hours of rainfall, but there would be some bigger totals out here.

[00:05:00]The change behind it though shows more low pressure. The next one and there's another one over towards Perth. So there's a series of lower pressure systems moving in as we go from May to June. But Wednesday itself pretty settled around the country. May even be some fog patches returning again with the lighter winds. And by Thursday next week, in comes the next low. We've got northwesterly winds a little bit subtropical in some areas. So again, it's warm and dry in the east in particular of both of the main islands north of about Banks Peninsula. Lower pressure further to the south that will dredge up a bit of a colder air flow for some of you around Southland and Otago.

[00:05:36]And the next burst of heavy west coast rain starts to arrive. And like I said yesterday, there may still be some changes on the Wednesday, Thursday forecast because it is a little bit unsettled, a little bit messy in the sense of the shape of the low being so stretched out and large. Uh that can make it a little bit tricky to forecast.

[00:05:53]But your local forecast again will be factoring all of that in. And there's also high pressure way up here over Queensland and the next one south of Tasmania. So in between those, that's where we're getting the low pressure zones. Here is the 4-day rain format, not a 7-day one. This one goes through to Monday. uh and it shows what the long weekend is looking like. So there is some heavy rain potential in Northland, the far north in particular and around Nelson and Tasmin uh and maybe a little bit into Malra and then down the west coast. So some of those loca locations getting over 200 mm or more. So keep up to date with the Met Service weather warnings. Eastern areas, if you're in the uh pink or white shaded areas, don't expect much in the way of rain. And so we do have some dry weather this weekend. And it's certainly not all stormy as some uh news headlines are suggesting, but there is severe weather in both of the main islands at some point. That's all from me. Have yourselves a great long weekend. I'll see you again on Tuesday.