{"id":642291,"date":"2026-10-27T00:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642291\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T00:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:44:11","slug":"nz-weather-130km-h-gales-heavy-rain-forecast-as-firefighters-battle-scrub-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642291\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ Weather: 130km\/h gales, heavy rain forecast as firefighters battle scrub fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

In central New Zealand crews were called to deal with downed power lines and sparking street lights, according to a Fire and Emergency spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

\"SevereSevere northwest gales are forecast to bring gusts of up to 120km\/h to exposed parts of Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough today. Image \/ Windy.com<\/p>\n

Powerco\u2019s website shows dozens of properties with unplanned outages in the lower North Island, while an earlier Wellington Electricity outage has been resolved. <\/p>\n

Another 650 properties are without power this morning in Urenui, northeast of New Plymouth, due to a crash.<\/p>\n

MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden told the Herald incoming rain and easing winds were good news for areas affected by the fires.<\/p>\n

Winds were expected to ease in Canterbury overnight, while the Central Plateau could see rain from midday today.<\/p>\n

Orange strong wind warnings are in place for Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough, with severe northwest gales forecast to bring gusts of up to 130km\/h in Wellington early this morning.<\/p>\n

The warnings expire at 8am in Marlborough, 9am in Wellington and 11am in Wairarapa.<\/p>\n

MetService warns the winds could damage trees, power lines and unsecured structures, while motorists, particularly those driving high-sided vehicles, could face difficult conditions.<\/p>\n

Fierce winds have already caused havoc in Wellington, where flights were cancelled and cyclists were reportedly blown off their bikes<\/a> and wing mirrors ripped from cars yesterday.<\/p>\n

An orange heavy rain warning is also in place for the Tararua Range until 11am, with between 90mm and 130mm expected.<\/p>\n

Strong wind watches are also in place for Horowhenua, K\u0101piti and Tararua, where northwest winds could approach severe gale force.<\/p>\n

Lynden said the strongest winds would ease as the weather system moved north.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy midday or early afternoon winds will have eased and turned to lighter and cooler southwesterlies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HugeHuge plumes of smoke drifted over the Desert Rd as firefighters battled a vegetation fire near Waiouru yesterday.<\/p>\n

Further north, Aucklanders can expect a cloudy start with northerly winds and possible light showers.<\/p>\n

Showers are expected to become heavier around midday before winds shift to cooler southwesterlies.<\/p>\n

\u201c[You] should start to see some fine breaks through the afternoon,\u201d Lynden said.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Lynden said the country was in for a cooler end to the week after a spell of relatively warm weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d expect the general temperatures to drop from what we\u2019ve seen recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western regions, particularly the West Coast, can expect more cloud and occasional showers as the country settles into a cooler westerly airflow.<\/p>\n

Earth Sciences New Zealand is also forecasting another spell of rain later this week, with western regions expected to see the wettest conditions on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In central New Zealand crews were called to deal with downed power lines and sparking street lights, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66365,60698,806,5837,6757,2841,5346,7572,63,5616,6561,6559,807,70362,1304,111,43,139,69,17711,6560,9361,1527,27611,2848,1961,4998,1845,18980,4576],"class_list":["post-642291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-130kmh","tag-although","tag-as","tag-battle","tag-bringing","tag-country","tag-expected","tag-firefighters","tag-fires","tag-forecast","tag-gales","tag-heavy","tag-kiwis","tag-lash","tag-morning","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parts","tag-rain","tag-relief","tag-return","tag-scrub","tag-severe","tag-this","tag-weather","tag-welcome","tag-winds","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642291","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=642291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}