By Mike Hall
The severe spring westerly winds are back over the lower half of the country today, heading north and triggering warnings for the weekend.
For many this week’s weather has felt cold and nasty, but it should not have been a surprise.
Spring always brings out the westerlies, which Georgina Griffiths of NIWA says is due to temperature differences across the country.
“It’s the season where it’s the largest temperature difference between the north of New Zealand and to the south,” she says. “That's why the westerly winds blow at this time of year.”
They are literally winds of change, shifting warm air down from the tropics with nor-westers and moving cold air up from the Antarctic with southwesters.
Spring will be doing its thing again tomorrow, with wet weather on the way again. It will be a few days before things settle down again.
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