Crank the fans: Another ‘exceptionally’ muggy day ahead as NZ feels remnants of tropical cyclone

Feeling the hot humid heat? Get used to it as forecasters are warning the sticky, muggy feel of the tropics won’t peak until Saturday.

A tropical cyclone set to hit the Pacific later this week means New Zealand will also feel its impacts, with more muggy and wet weather on the cards.

Today will be another “exceptionally humid day” in all corners of the country as an air mass continues to spill southward from New Caledonia and Vanuatu, according to Niwa.

MetService says there is a tropical depression to the north of New Caledonia.

“This system may affect the North Island this weekend. Although it will no longer be a tropical cyclone, it still brings the risk of significantly heavy rain and strong winds,” MetService says.

Just after 8pm, the Fijian Government named the system Tropical Cyclone Dovi.

It is predicted to develop into a tropical depression that is likely to impact New Zealand on Sunday.

Philip Duncan from Weather Watch said the cyclone would “directly head towards New Zealand this weekend”.

“We do think it will fall apart as it gets into the New Zealand area but … it’s going to dump a lot of rain and there’s a chance of damaging winds.”

Duncan said as the storm drops south towards New Zealand, more rain will be triggered for the west coast of the country, which has already experienced a lot of precipitation this month.

He said the North Island and West coast were set to be hit with a “fair amount” of rain.

Humid air from the equator was set to come towards the country, which Duncan said was a tropical event.

Looking at rainfall over the next three days, he said there would be some rain around the top of the South Island but the North Island would get hit the most.

“Most of the North Island is around the 60 to 125 to 150 millimetre mark. So there’s a lot of rain coming in across this area.”

By Sunday, Duncan said the storm will weaken however there is a potential chance for heavy rain and strong wind with Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay being most exposed.

Meanwhile, Fire and Emergency on Wednesday night were assisting one household with flooding in the Westport Area.

On Waimangaroa, a spokesperson said they are assisting some people with evacuation.

MetService issued a number of orange heavy rain warning for regions on the West Coast of the South Island.

Earlier this week, a meteorologist warned the hot and humid weather that some are enduring across the upper North Island is expected to stick around until early next week.

MetService meteorologist Peter Little said the conditions are a result of the weather system which saw heavy rain hit the West Coast last week.

“That [weather system] has stalled over the north of the country so all the humidity associated with that system is hanging around and unfortunately it’s set to actually spread southwards,” said Little.

Niwa forecaster Nava Fedaeff told the Herald that the conditions are also due to air travelling from the tropics north of New Zealand.

“While we can’t travel to many tropical places at the moment, the air is coming to us instead and so it does feel almost Fiji-like in Auckland at the moment,” Fedaeff said.

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