Torrential rain slammed the west and north of New Zealand’s South Island for a third straight day on Thursday, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes and triggering road and school closures and land slips. Coming top of weeks of damp weather, the latest rainstorms are worsening conditions in New Zealand’s already sodden landscape. Experts have attributed the unseasonably wet weather to a narrow stream of water vapour, or an ‘atmospheric river’, sitting above the country. 

Weather forecaster Metservice’s data showed part of the north of the South Island had received well over 300 millimetres of rain (11.8 inches) in the past 24 hours. It has heavy rain warnings in place for parts of the west of the South Island and in the north of the North Island.