Updated - Batten down the hatches

We're over the rain. Wanganui has received three months worth of rain since the beginning of August after a very dry July, and any moisture deficit in the ground is long gone. The grass is growing with some speed, and even the farmers are complaining about the weather!

So it hasn't warmed our heart to read this, in the Herald:

Gales and huge ocean swells are expected to batter much of New Zealand from the west over the next few days.

The source of the severe weather is an enormous, deep low-pressure system churning far to the south of Invercargill and sending a series of fronts sweeping across the country.

MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said yesterday that the Roaring Forties, a band of strong westerly winds, were expected to move temporarily north into the Tasman Sea.

"So we are going to have some wild and windy weather over the next few days. Particularly the west coasts [of the country's islands] are likely to get humungous swells from the Roaring Forties as they move in, particularly during Friday and Saturday."

Philip Duncan, of the WeatherWatch website, said the low was currently one of the largest storms on the planet, "covering an area the size of Australia" and with a central pressure that had sunk to around 950 hectopascals.

Charming! It's just as well that we dusted off the golf clubs yesterday, because it looks like being another bleak weekend. Oh well ....

UPDATE: It's been raining steadily in W(h)anganui since 8.30am, and there's a decidedly wintery feel - 9.3* outside as we type this (3.45pm). No sign of the winds yet, but Metservice suggests that they are imminent.