Tropical Cyclone Vaianu is tracking towards New Zealand, with forecasters warning of a potentially life threatening mix of damaging winds, heavy rain and coastal impacts from Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
The storm was about 500 kilometres north of the country at 1:00pm on Saturday, but early effects were already being felt, with high cloud spreading across the North Island and winds strengthening offshore.<\/p>\n
Gusts of more than 110kmh have already been recorded at Mokohinau Island and Great Mercury Island.<\/p>\n
MetService has upgraded wind warnings for several regions, with a Red Strong Wind Warning now in place for the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua, where severe gales and gusts of up to 130kmh are expected on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Red warnings also remain in place for the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island from Saturday night through Sunday.<\/p>\n
Much of the North Island is under Orange wind and rain warnings or Yellow watches, while an Orange Heavy Rain Warning has been issued for eastern Marlborough.<\/p>\n
MetService meteorologist John Law said the system posed significant risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyclone Vaianu remains on its path towards us and is set to bring damaging winds, heavy rain and large swells,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Red Severe Weather Warnings represent our highest level of alert. Winds of this strength could bring a threat to life from flying items and falling trees as well as widespread damage including powerlines and roofs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Law said winds were expected to shift direction rapidly as the cyclone moved across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe winds wrapping towards the centre of Vaianu mean that we will be seeing big changes in wind direction during Sunday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor spots like Auckland this will mean a swing from gale or even severe gale southeasterlies in the morning to severe gale westerlies in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heavy rain is expected to arrive across much of the North Island overnight on Saturday before easing during Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor much of the North Island, Saturday will be a dry day before the rain arrives overnight. Thankfully, Vaianu looks to be a fleeting visitor with the rain clearing during Sunday,\u201d Law said.<\/p>\n
Forecasters said the combination of strong winds and large swells would create dangerous coastal conditions, particularly along north and eastern facing coastlines.<\/p>\n
Authorities are warning of possible power outages, falling trees, flooding, slips, road closures and isolated communities, depending on the cyclone\u2019s path.<\/p>\n
Residents are being urged to stay up to date with the latest forecasts and take care in exposed coastal areas, especially around high tide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tropical Cyclone Vaianu is tracking towards New Zealand, with forecasters warning of a potentially life threatening mix of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[373,111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-373999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373999","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=373999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}