{"id":319126,"date":"2026-03-08T12:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319126\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T12:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:12:12","slug":"mixed-bag-of-weather-set-for-south-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319126\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed bag of weather set for South Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4KM9IL3_nechama_lock_1UKPq4mDtV4_unsplash_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Rain on an umbrella at night.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nMetService says there is a moderate chance of Southland&#8217;s heavy rain watch being upgraded to a warning.<br \/>\nPhoto: UnSplash\/ Nechama Lock\n<\/p>\n<p>Downpours are set to strike the lower South Island, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/588903\/fronts-expected-to-bring-heavy-rain-to-deep-south\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fiordland and Southland both under heavy rain watches<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>MetService warned that the rainfall could approach warning criteria.<\/p>\n<p>It said there was a moderate chance of Southland&#8217;s watch being upgraded to a warning.<\/p>\n<p>The watches are in place from 9am on Sunday, with Fiordland about and north of Dusky Sound&#8217;s watch ending at 9pm.<\/p>\n<p>Southland is under a heavy rain watch until 7pm.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ufe0fHeavy Rain Watches for Far South \ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>A front moves up, slow at first, allowing accumulations to climb a bit in the far south, hence the Heavy Rain Watches. The front then speeds up as it moves northward over the rest of the South Island on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>We can see the North\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/D5VmRs2Vl8\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/D5VmRs2Vl8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MetService NZ (@MetService) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MetService\/status\/2030080918950691116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scorching temperatures for South&#8217;s east coast<\/p>\n<p>Much of the South Island&#8217;s east coast, however, is set for a scorching Sunday, with temperatures almost reaching 30C.<\/p>\n<p>MetService said northwesterly winds and sunny conditions ahead of a cold front were driving the hot temperatures.<\/p>\n<p>It said Blenheim was expected to reach 29C, while Christchurch is forecast to hit 28C. Timaru is also expected to hit 25C, while Ashburton could expect to reach 27C.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MetService says there is a moderate chance of Southland&#8217;s heavy rain watch being upgraded to a warning. Photo:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-319126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}