People in northern New Zealand are being urged to prepare for heavy rain which is set to hit the country for Auckland Anniversary weekend.<\/p>\n
MetService has issued heavy rain and strong wind warnings for parts of the North Island.<\/p>\n
Significant rainfall was expected in Northland, Coromandel Peninsula and western Bay of Plenty this weekend.<\/p>\n
A heavy rain watch and strong wind watch were also in place for Auckland.<\/p>\n
Waka Kotahi has placed a strong wind watch on the Harbour Bridge, with winds gusting 40-50km\/hr, strengthening this evening to 50-60 km\/hr.<\/p>\n
Drivers of high sided vehicles and motorcyclists are advised to avoid the bridge.<\/p>\n
An amber alert is in place for tomorrow, with 90kmh winds forecast tomorrow from 7am to midday. Under this alert speeds are reduced and lanes may close.<\/p>\n
And forecast winds of 90-100kmh with a risk of 110kmh would signal a red alert from midday to 10pm, closing all lanes on the bridge.<\/p>\n
Planned overnight maintenance has also been shifted to Sunday due to weather.<\/p>\n
Aucklanders planning to travel on Friday should consider delaying as the weather would mean an increased risk of delays, especially around Coromandel, MetService said.<\/p>\n
“More cars on the road, tired drivers and people driving on unfamiliar roads can make holiday driving stressful and risky,” Waka Kotahi director of regional relationships Steve Mutton said.<\/p>\n
“Checking your car is safe before your journey, keeping your speed down, driving sober, watching for the signs of fatigue and sharing the driving are just some of the things you can do to ensure you arrive safely at your destination.”<\/p>\n
Mt Taranaki could see heavy rain.<\/p>\n
SOURCE\u00a0 \u00a0RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People in northern New Zealand are being urged to prepare for heavy rain which is set to hit the country for Auckland Anniversary weekend. MetService has issued heavy rain and strong wind warnings for parts of the North Island. Significant rainfall was expected in Northland, Coromandel Peninsula and western Bay of Plenty this weekend. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}