Topsy turvy is a good saying to sum up late winter/early spring weather – and that’s certainly the weather we’re going to be seeing this week across New Zealand.

As a low that spent a number of days building strength in the Tasman Sea heads out into the Pacific Ocean today it leaves behind an erratic weather pattern.

A high north of New Zealand will try to bring settled weather to the nation but a deep low south of the country will be battling against it – the low is likely to win, at least for the lower two thirds of the country.

While the centre of this low won’t come anywhere near us the squash zone between that low in the south and the high in the north means strong winds over the South Island and lower North Island mid-week.

A change to sou’westers for most of New Zealand is likely on Thursday but the computer models show plenty of ‘kinks’ in the isobars which suggests the flow is disturbed, meaning changeable conditions are likely.

Homepage image: David Hawke