A satellite image of rain moving across the upper North Island on 30 April, 2023.
Photo: MetService
Five areas of the country are now under orange heavy rain warnings as the latest bout of bad weather sweeps in.
MetService said heavier rain and stronger winds are forecast for the upper North Island but it won’t be as bad as the weather events earlier this year.
Orange heavy rain warnings are in force for Northland, the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Rotorua and Nelson.
Some areas of Northland received rainfall of 50 millimetres and winds of up to 87 kilometres per hour last night and this morning.
Northland has escaped any major problems from the weather so far, but MetService said the region along with northern Auckland and Coromandel can expect heavier rainfall and increased wind throughout the day.
Wet and Windy Weather Watches and Warnings Update
Latest from the Severe Weather Team below
Keep up to date with the latest forecasts at: https://t.co/Yjbq0jgaoz and any changes to the watches/warnings at: https://t.co/qHyE5zzql5
Stay safe out there! pic.twitter.com/YnZJS5ayvF— MetService (@MetService) April 29, 2023
Earlier today Emergency Management spokesman Zac Woods said Northland was coping well.
“We’ve definitely seen some strong winds and rain throughout the night for the region. There was a few dotted power outages, but most of those have been resolved but largely no major incidents or anything, occurred overnight,” he said.
Strong wind watches are in force for Northland, north Auckland, Great Barrier Island and Coromandel.
There is also a strong winds warning in place for the Auckland Harbour Bridge and Waka Kotahi is urging motorists to take care.
SH1 AKL HBR BRIDGE – 6:10AM
A strong winds warning is currently in place on #SH1 Harbour bridge. Please take extra care especially if you are in a lighter or high-sided vehicle or riding a motorcycle. ^EH pic.twitter.com/xsGt1IUOhI— Waka Kotahi NZTA Auckland & Northland (@WakaKotahiAkNth) April 29, 2023
Auckland Emergency Management said it was actively monitoring the weather.
Duty controller Rachel Kelleher said they had done preparatory work to make sure civil defence shelters were available when needed.
Meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said the low pressure system will continue to move south, bringing the weather conditions to more areas.
Wind gust up to 100 kilometres an hour in Coromandel
The east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula is taking a battering as severe weather sweeps down from Northland.
Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler said winds were gusting 100 kilometres an hour from Whangamata to Whitianga.
He said he was worried about more rain causing problems on the fragile roads after Cyclone Gabrielle.
Towler said in some places, trees had fallen onto roads and crews were busy clearing slips.
He said people should prepare and make plans as the bad weather could last up to a week.
Northland Civil Defence and Bay of Plenty officials said there have been no major problems in their regions so far.
People have been asked to to keep an eye out for the marine conditions, and to be mindful of high waves along exposed coastlines.
Sunday’s emojicast:
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️— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) April 29, 2023
Vector said it had been monitoring the electricity network overnight, as heavy rain and high winds began sweeping into Auckland in the early hours.
The lines company said suburbs that had overhead powerlines were at most risk from the latest bout of bad weather.
Chief operations officer Peter Ryan said crews had been on standby overnight and Vector was monitoring the state of the network 24/7.
“We’ll be dispatching crews into the field whenever we get significant loss of outage, safety being paramount – some of the work we do can really only safely be conducted during daylight hours.”
