Torrential rain has slammed the west and north of New Zealand’s South Island for a third straight day, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes and triggering road and school closures and land slips.
Coming top of weeks of damp weather, Thursday’s 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.
