{"id":382399,"date":"2026-04-16T11:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382399\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:41:08","slug":"school-holiday-traffic-alert-as-heavy-rain-moves-up-south-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382399\/","title":{"rendered":"School holiday traffic alert as heavy rain moves up South Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Outlook for main centres<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Auckland is forecast to drop to about 14C tonight, slightly warmer than the April average.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Tomorrow will see some cloud with isolated showers, expected to clear in the evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">In the Waikato, including Hamilton, tomorrow morning should remain relatively settled, with cloud and the chance of a \u201cfew light showers or drizzle\u201d before heavier rain arrives from around midday Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">After a pleasant couple of days, Wellington will see \u201ca bit more cloud move in tomorrow as northerly winds pick up heading into a day of rain on Saturday,\u201d Ferris said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Christchurch is in for a cool start with 2C expected tomorrow morning bringing frosty patches and light winds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThen we\u2019ll see a bit more of a building northerly wind, probably getting a little bit gusty towards the end of the day,\u201d Ferris said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Parts of Central Otago may drop to around 2C overnight as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">While recent cold snaps have delivered early snowfall to parts of the South Island high country, including 5-10cm on Coronet Peak last night, Ferris said the latest snow event appears to have passed for now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe\u2019re getting into the time of the season where we will start seeing a few more of those turn up,\u201d he said, \u201cbut not for the next little while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Orange heavy rain warning for West Coast<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">MetService has issued heavy rain warnings for much of the South Island\u2019s West Coast with up to 150mm of rain expected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">An orange-level warning is in place for Buller and Grey from 4pm tomorrow until 9am on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Thunderstorms are also possible for the region from tomorrow night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">The Westland ranges are forecast to receive 12 hours of rain from noon tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Locals were advised to drive carefully, and to clear their drains and gutters to offset possible surface flooding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">A 12-hour period of rain is also forecast for the headwaters of Canterbury lakes and rivers about and south of Arthurs Pass from 1pm tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Thunderstorms are possible close to the Main Divide, according to MetService.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Those in the area were warned to avoid low-lying areas and to be wary of rapidly rising streams and rivers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Several other South Island regions are under severe weather watches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outlook for main centres Auckland is forecast to drop to about 14C tonight, slightly warmer than the April&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,41242,806,2841,1872,111151,33443,6559,189,2956,1345,2514,8599,111,43,139,69,6560,20383,4062,1963,1240,1961,3946,9186,810,4767],"class_list":["post-382399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-alert","tag-as","tag-country","tag-face","tag-fronts","tag-heading","tag-heavy","tag-holiday","tag-holidays","tag-home","tag-island","tag-moves","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rain","tag-roads","tag-school","tag-series","tag-south","tag-this","tag-traffic","tag-travellers","tag-up","tag-weekend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382399","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=382399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}