Cielder.
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is a bonus episode of The Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. The severe storm barreling towards the Upper North Island has been upgraded to a tropical cyclone, but not for long. It's been named tropical Cyclone tam And. While its center is expected to remain west of capeery Younga, forecasters are still warning of severe wind and rain over the next twenty four hours.
With regards to rainfall a mount in Northland, we're expecting rainfall amounts of about one hundred to one hundred and fifty millimeters of rain on top of what has already fallen and that goes until Thursday night. Regarding the wind speed in that same region, we could see speed in the region of about one hundred and twenty to about one hundred and forty that's is pur and for notton.
That is very very strong winds, especially from that wind direction. Again, the exact numbers of the rainfall and the wind will really see impactful once they start acting together.
For what you need to know about this storm, we're joined now on the Front Page by NSID Herald reporter Rachel Mayer. So, Rachel, what's the latest on the weather warnings for this cyclone.
Yeah, Mittservice have just released a whole bunch of new ones, so this is all coming from tropical cyclone. Tam MIT Service expects it to be done growded to a storm later this evening, but that doesn't mean it wants. You'll pack a punch. So we've got one hundred and twenty kilometer winds expected in Auckland and Northland. For context, the Auckland have a bread shuts down when there's ninety kilometer winds, so that's quite big. Two hundred and fifty millimeters of
rain expected in Coloramandel tomorrow. That's over twenty four hours, so that's a lot. Already, we have hundreds of in Northland without power, several road closures in the far North due to slips and trees down. We also have a major highway down South closed Stack Highway five due to a slip. Officials right now are saying just be safe, drive for the conditions, clear your gutters and only travel if absolutely necessary. If you're in the Northland, Auckland Corimandal regions at the moment.
It's a good time to check what emergency reading the supplies you may have because if the power goes, Yeah, you know, have you got a torch in a radio just to be able to listener on things.
In terms of travel warnings or the need to prepare homes. I know you mentioned the gutters, but also it's probably good to have like a go bag ready just in case you're evacuated. Hey.
Yeah, several defense have come out, especially in northern Auckland. Those areas have been hit by wild where over the last few years were seen major flooding due to Cyclon Gabrielle, the Auckland Anniversary floods. So a lot of people in those areas will know to do now, have that go bag ready, strap down your trampoline, strap down your outdoor furniture, clear your gutters and be prepared.
It is going to be quite messy, windy and wet, so allow that a little bit of extra time for travel, or perhaps delay travel a little bit because we know that the wind is going to start improving on Friday.
So in terms of timings, when should we likely see the worst of this storm.
Yeah, So at around ten am on Wednesday, the troupical cyclone tam was sitting around four hundred and fifty kilometers west of New Caledonia at that point, met Service is saying it's traveling at a speed of around thirty five kilometers an hour south towards New Zealand. It's expected to be for us to start feeling the worst of the impacts at around seven pm, where it's going to be
setting a few hundred kilometers west of New Zealand. Now, as I've said, Mitservice is not only downgrading this to a storm, but in fact it's not only meant to be hitting New Zealand, but it absolutely should not be counted out. We're still going to have major effects from the storm. It will pack a punch. People should still be prepared and not counted out just because of that.
Thanks for joining us, Rachel.
Thank you.
That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enziherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also our sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.