Rotorua weather: Rain for festive season

Santa will have to bring an umbrella to Rotorua this Christmas - it's likely to be raining right up until the New Year.

With the remnants of Cyclone Evan, the storm system that caused the deaths of five people in Samoa, coming southwards to New Zealand tomorrow, it's looking like rain for most of the holiday season.

A severe weather watch was issued by Metservice yesterday, warning of the possibility of bursts of very heavy rain and strong easterly gales tomorrow and Monday.

Forecaster Philippa Murdoch said today would bring patchy drizzle, but it would be mostly fine with high cloud.

Tomorrow the cloud would be increasing and rain would begin to develop as the ex-tropical cyclone came down from the north of the country.

"We're going to see some rain associated with that and probably quite strong northeasterlies. There could be some heavy falls on Monday and also on Tuesday and things will ease off a little going into Boxing Day."

Ms Murdoch said it was likely Metservice would issue a weather warning closer to Monday so she advised people in Rotorua to keep an eye on the forecast.

Ms Murdoch said she couldn't comment on the weather further ahead but Metservice's 10-day forecast for Rotorua predicted rain right up until New Year's Eve, with low- to mid-20C highs.

Weatherwatch.co.nz's outlook for Christmas Day was for showers, with some sun moving in briefly at times too and very humid north to northeast breezes.