NZ: Weekend low "one to monitor" as high pressure slips away for a time (10/2/26)

We have a gap in the high pressure belt, starting Friday and possibly lingering until the start of next week. Long range maps have been picking a low with some severe weather potential for nearly two weeks now for mid-February, but it's still not clear yet if the severe weather will affect land or remain offshore. The low may be in a position this weekend to rapidly deepen and become a storm east of the North Island. We'll still need a few more days to be certain of this - so either way keep up to date with the forecasts this week as we head into the weekend. Behind this low pressure may be yet another strong anticyclone (high presssure belt) - so we're not done with the summer weather yet. We also promote the Calypso Science sea pollution map to track the sewage dump in Wellington at the moment: https://pollutionmap.seascope.io