Cyclone headed for New Zealand

Cyclone remnants set to 'pack a punch'

NZ Herald,

11 March, 2014

The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Lusi are on track to hit New Zealand this weekend, forecasters say, with the North Island likely to bear the brunt of the storm.

A "stunning'' week will be followed by a weekend of heavy rain and severe gales as the weather system arrives to batter the country on Friday or Saturday.

It's likely to pass over Auckland on Saturday night and into Sunday morning, WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan said.

While it would no longer be classified as a tropical cyclone by the time it reached New Zealand, it would still "pack a punch'', he said.

"We expect it will move in around Saturday or Sunday and it could bring very heavy rain and severe gales to northern New Zealand, and across the weekend it will affect all of the North Island at some point,'' Mr Duncan said.

However, it is not yet known which part of the country will be worst hit by the tropical storm.

"A lot of the weather around this low will be just your normal cloudy, windy sort of stuff, it won't be severe. But the worst of the weather is the centre part where the worst of the wind will be and some of the heaviest rain will be. That's the area we're watching very closely and are yet to work out specifically where it will go,'' Mr Duncan said.