It’s a busy spring weather day across New Zealand with temperatures up to 27 degrees in Hawke’s Bay, 25 in Christchurch and NW gales in Wellington gusting around 100km/h.

Here are WeatherWatch.co.nz’s main New Zealand weather highlights across your Monday afternoon:

HEAT:
Not everyone is lucky enough to have an early blast of warmth, but those in the east from Dunedin to Christchurch and Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne are all in the 20s. Napier, Hastings and Christchurch are the three hottest cities as of the 2pm hour.

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COOL:
It’s not so warm in the west today. With rain on the West Coast and thickening cloud on the western side of the North Island. It’s windy too, off the sea. Most places in the west of New Zealand are currently between 12 and 20 degrees, with the late teens to 20 most likely around Northland and Auckland. This is a warmer airflow so it may actually warm up a bit further some in the north west, but further south the cold front is slowly approaching.

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RAIN
It’s been wet along the West Coast today with heavy falls. Showers through Wellington, along with the gales, are making for a miserable day in the Capital. The rain band (as of 2:30pm) was crossing Cook Strait and towards the lower North Island regions from Taranaki to Manawatu. There’s also some rain around Southland.

Forecast Rain Radar shows wet weather mainly in the west and south west of the country. Areas circled in yellow show you the main areas of rain as of 2:30pm. The front in Cook Strait was slowly marching into the lower North Island.

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STRONG WINDS / GALES
It’s a blustery day in the east of the South Island and Cook Strait. The winds in the South Island have brought down a few trees but should ease this afternoon and evening. However winds around Cook Street from the NW are averaging just shy of gale force and are gusting 70 to 100km/h in the city. Winds may increase/remain for the rest of the day.

Worst winds are through Cook Strait and around the South Island mountains. Winds in the South Island ease back this afternoon and evening, but remain through Cook Strait and may build in the eastern North Island later.

– Maps via: IBM/TWC, Weathermap, WeatherWatch.co.nz
– Obs via: IBM/TWC/WW

– WeatherWatch.co.nz