East Coast residents in the North Island are again bracing for another deluge as MetService issues a heavy rain warning for the Tairāwhiti area north of Tolaga Bay.
The heavy rain warning applies from 6pm on Sunday until Monday morning.
Tairāwhiti Civil Defence is urging residents to stay off the roads during this period and warning campers that rivers would rise rapidly.
A heavy rain watch applies for the area south of Tolaga Bay from Sunday evening while a severe thunderstorm watch is in place for inland parts of Hawke’s Bay south of State Highway 5, and coastal areas south of Hastings, from 3pm to 11pm on Saturday.
MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said the low pressure system responsible for the Tairāwhiti heavy rain warning was on Saturday still well north of the country but expected to drift south and make landfall later on Sunday.
About 100 to 150mm of rain was expected in the area subject to the warning, she said.
Makgabutlane said the system was different from the tropical low in the Coral Sea that was last weak threatening to form the southwest Pacific’s first tropical cyclone of 2024.
“We’ve also got an eye on it."
In Australia, the Queensland Bureau of Meteorology said there was now a high risk of it turning into a cyclone and moving southwest into the Queensland coast next week.
The Tairāwhiti rain warning comes after the region was repeatedly left reeling last year by wild weather, first by Cyclone Hale in January then by Cyclone Gabrielle the following month.
In Hawke's Bay, residents have been warned to expected localised downpours inland below SH5 and coastal areas south of Hastings between 3pm and 11pm on Saturday, when between 25mm and 40mm of rain could fall per hour, MetService said.
The downpours could occur alongside thunderstorms and cause surface or flash flooding, particularly around low lying areas, and driving conditions were likely to be hazardous.
