John Law: MetService meteorologist on what to expect from Cyclone Vaianu

Damaging gusts and severe downpours are gathering steam, with Cyclone Vaianu set to hit.

Watches and warnings cover the upper half of the country, and a scattering of regions between Northland and Hawke's Bay have declared States of Emergency. 

Heavy overnight gusts have already knocked out power for thousands of homes, with crews out this morning working to restore supply. 

Whitianga could be cut off at High Tide - with the deluge causing flooding in the Coromandel. 

Several Auckland Roads are also seeing flooding - and NZTA warns there could be more road closures across Waikato and Bay of Plenty. 

MetService meteorologist John Law says strong Northeasterlies at the eastern flank of that low pressure system, are driving the large seas and strong winds around the Bay of Plenty. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Ruggan
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Right to cyclone of Iony. Now let's get an update
on where it's in what we speaks throughout the rest
of the day. Mitservice meteorologist John law is with me.
Thank you so much for your time, John, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Good in the morning. Thank you so much for having me.
Plenty happening across thirty the North Island this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Okay, so what have we seen overnight?

Speaker 3 (00:32):
So overnight we've seen those winds that really ramping up
there gus around one hundred and thirty colmars an hour
out towards Malkhino Island out on the Auckland Golf there
and places like Channelander's or a similar kind of values. Now,
the center of cyclone VIU is still not quite with us.
It's just to the east of Great Barrier Island, Mate
around aboute hundred and ten cometers to the east and

(00:54):
it's still sinking at southward. So we're still seeing our
winds picking up over the next few hours or so.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
So what other areas have been impacted so far around
the North Island?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
So the area is most impacted so far La Coraman
the Bear of Plenty, both in terms of heavy rainfall
and those stronger winds parts of north as well, huge
amounts of rainfall there through the nighttime fday. Another ninety
one hundred millimeters of rainfall over the last twenty four hours,
so we've seen that that wet weather coming through. It's
pretty wet as well down here, and we went in
the rain. Now sliding down towards the top of the

(01:25):
South Island, places like Nelson Marlborough really picking up a
fair bit of wet weather and we've got more of
that rain slow to clear away from those regions too.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So is the cyclone tracking how we expected.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
It's still very much on that same path. It's running
down that eastern coast of the Coramandal and it's set
to move on shore as we head through towards the
afternoon around the likes of the Bear of Plenty. Now
it's worth saying, as we've already seen, the impacts from
this system are far beyond that central area of low pressure.
But what the central area of low pressure does represent

(01:59):
is a focal point for the winds to change direction.
So on the eastward flank of that they're coming in
from the north and that driving those large seas and
those strong winds in towards place at the bear Plenty
of those northeasters, but on the western flank of that
low pressure looking at windsy and natural west or southwest,
which is what we're going to find places like Auckland
and Northland as we head through the next few hours.

(02:20):
It's currently not too bad in Auckland's winds proprotively light,
but as those southwesterly winds return and pick up, that's
when I think we're going to find those winds increasing
through Auckland this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Okay, so just give us a little bit of a
brief of what we can expect for the rest of
the day. Across the North Island to the.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
North side, it's set to stay windy, cloudy, and where
the strongest winds across those northern parts of the country,
from say the Command or round the bear Plenty and
acrossing towards the coastal parts of Tidalafti down towards Marchia
and Hawk's Bay as well. Now it's a system that
palls away, it will take with it the wet weather,
so we'll start to find some clearance across the likes
of Northland as we head through the afternoon, but it

(02:59):
is still going to be a probly windy story for
the likes of Auckland at least through to this evening,
with the chance of some gusts are still around abot
one hundred and twenty kilometers an hour. We've got those
warners as well that push down towards the top of
the South Ie, that rainfall taking it's time to clear
away from the likes of Marlborough and white Appa on
the other side of the Cook Straight and then of
course heading right away across the water towards the Chatterm Islands.

(03:22):
Wind's here picking up as we head through the evening.
Strong wind watches for you as we head through towards Monday.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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