Severe wind watch: 100km/h gusts expected across Wellington

By RNZ

MetService’s wind watch for the Wellington area has a moderate chance of being upgraded to a warning, before expected 100km/h gusts.

The weather agency issued a wind watch for Wellington and Marlborough Sounds from 9pm on Wednesday until 4am on Thursday.

MetService meteorologist Dom Barry said a front was moving up the South Island, towards the Cook Strait where winds tended to be “squeezed”, creating gale force winds.

“And on this occasion, that squeeze is a little stronger than what your average Wellington day might turn out to be,” he said.

Winds were expected to be worst about 9pm or 10pm this evening, moving from northern parts of the Marlborough Sounds towards Wellington and up the Kāpiti Coast.

He advised people to keep an eye on forecasts as the watch had a “moderate chance” of being upgraded to a warning.

Fellow MetService meteorologist John Law said it was the “first severe wind watch through the capital for a fair while”.

“We had a few warnings through September, but it has been a relatively quiet spell.”

He said spring in the capital was generally characterised by blustery conditions.

“It’s not unusual during springtime to find gusts of wind to 110, 120km/h in exposed areas through parts of the Wellington region.”

Law said there had been large areas of high pressure around Wellington, which had led to calmer conditions occasionally interspersed with more blustery conditions.

“It’s all to do with where those systems are. So just a few 100km either to the east or west, we might just find ourselves on the wrong side of the high pressure to run through.”

He said spring was a “volatile time” when weather could change rapidly in terms of temperature and wind speed.

  This story was first published on rnz.co.nz