Today we have cold upper air moving over the country in an unstable southwesterly airflow, this means there could well be some thunder and hail about especially in Canterbury later this afternoon and western parts of the North Island this evening.

Isolated heavy showers are already developing along the foothills from Mid Canterbury northwards through to the hills just behind Waipara and thunder has been heard east of Culverden in the last 20 minutes. This could be more of a prelude of things to come however.

The main southwesterly wind change associated with the trough is getting into Otago now with showers and the bulk of the activity will be associated with this change.

Apart from possible excitement later this afternoon it’s been a warm day so far north of Hawkes Bay along the east coast with temperatures in Napier currently on 17.8 degrees which is the highest in the country at present, although the westerly wind there is quite blustery. Showers are peppering the western North Island and West Coast of the South Island, there are long dry breaks in between the showers too giving some relief.

Homepage image / TWC 1pm Satellite image, weather.com

By weather analyst Aaron Wilkinson, WeatherWatch.co.nz