The Country 17/03/25: Phil Duncan talks to Jamie Mackay

Does Monday's weatherman have any relief in store for the drought regions as we head into the heart of autumn?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wrapping the country with mondays where the man Phil Duncan, Phil,
I'm looking at the drought indexmap. More and more of
the country's getting colored. And what do you got for us?
I know the South's going against some rain, what about
the north?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, good, Jamie. We've got a bit of rain coming
through with a classic autumn front coming up the country
tomorrow and that's brings some low pressure with it too,
So yeah, there should be some good rain around the
South Island and some parts of the North Island. Like man,
we're two hot of feather Work Company. Maybe around parts
of Tananaki as well, they could be getting some rain.
But the further north you go it breaks apart. So

(00:32):
that's you know, we're on the New Zealand drought Index
at the moment. South Waikato, parts of Northwest Auckland and
Southwest Northland are in that drought zone technically. And like
you say, the very dry, extremely dry regions are growing.
But the top half of the North Island's not going
to see as much rain as the lower half of
the North Island will or the West Coast.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, I'm assuming that's to get a drought breaker for
the North Island. Will it have to come from the tropics.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, and so with a lot of high pressure for
the rest of this month, big high is still coming
on through. But what we're seeing now is there are
gaps behind these highs, and so what we'll when a
high comes through the back end of it is got
the chance of getting a subtropical system or sub antarctic one.
That's what we're looking for end of March, start of
April getting one of those systems to come through, and
you really drenched the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
So in the meantime, what are we now mid March
effectively just over halfway through March? Is it going to
be for a lot of people drive for the remainder
of the month.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, I think so. I think I think most places
will end the month dry than wetter. We do have
some rain around, like I say, coming in over the
next couple of days. It's going to be great for
some areas. For a lot of those areas that we
just mentioned, they do need a proper rain. They need
a month's worth of rain, not not just a week's
worth of rain. So most areas are still below average.
At the top of the North Island and the east

(01:51):
of both of the main islands.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, and we've also had some pretty hot temperatures.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I know, crazy, it's like it does feel like a
real true Indian some of this you're dragging on right
through till April. Yeah, well were they with those Northwesters
coming in today, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah. Okay, so, and I know, very hot and sticky
and muggy for many people, especially cold blood and southern
is like myself to try and sleep at night. But
never mind, Phil, that's my problem, not yours. Thanks for
your time, as always my pleasure. Good on you. There
we go, Phil Duncan wrapping the country