{"id":617018,"date":"2026-10-01T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617018\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T03:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:26:09","slug":"heavy-rain-strong-winds-to-sweep-nz-over-school-holiday-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617018\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy rain, strong winds to sweep NZ over school holiday weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">Heavy rain and strong winds are set to sweep up the county from Friday, bringing a wet end to the first week of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/26\/weather-warnings-issued-as-active-front-brings-heavy-rain-gales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the school holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">MetService said a front would move onto the South Island overnight before tracking north across the country over the weekend. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">A Heavy Rain Watch was in place for Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound, while a Strong Wind Watch was in place for Southland, Clutha, Dunedin, Central Otago, and the Southern Lakes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Northwesterly winds could also approach severe gales in exposed places, the forecaster said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;The front moving onto the South Island brings a pause to the relatively settled weather we&#8217;ve been experiencing this week, with strong winds for southern parts of the South Island on Friday morning and heavy rain for Fiordland,&#8221; said MetService meteorologist Maddy Neal. <\/p>\n<p>Warmth before temperatures tumble<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Most of the country was expected to have a relatively dry start to Friday, with temperatures reaching the low 20s in eastern areas as northwesterly winds strengthened. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">However, temperatures were forecast to fall sharply behind the front. MetService said areas reaching the low 20s on Friday could struggle to make the high teens over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Rain was expected across much of the South Island from Friday afternoon into Saturday, before conditions would clear for a mostly dry Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The front would then reach the lower North Island on Saturday morning, bringing a damp start to the weekend, before moving over Auckland and Northland on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Cooler-than-average mornings were also forecast across much of the North Island as the front moved in. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">\u201cIf you\u2019re planning on taking the kids outside, pack a rain jacket and an extra layer,\u201d Neal advised. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Conditions were then expected to improve for much of the country by Sunday afternoon, with a ridge of high pressure bringing more settled weather for the beginning of the second week of the school holidays.<\/p>\n<p>Full list of current weather watches: <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Heavy Rain Watch<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound \u2013 8 hours from 7am to 3pm Friday<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Strong Wind Watch<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Southland, Clutha, Dunedin, Central Otago and the Southern Lakes \u2013 9 hours from 3am to noon Friday<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Both watches had a moderate chance of upgrading to a warning, MetService said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heavy rain and strong winds are set to sweep up the county from Friday, bringing a wet end&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1080,111,43,139,69,15488,3393],"class_list":["post-617018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-dunedin-otago","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-southland","tag-weather-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617018","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=617018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}