This month there has been no shortage of long, sunny, spells – but Easter Weekend isn’t shaping up to be one of those periods predicts WeatherWatch.co.nz.

The weather news authority says a cold front will slowly move up the South Island starting late on Good Friday and Saturday then moving into the North Island on Sunday.

Once it reaches the upper North Island on Easter Sunday it may get caught up in a developing sub-tropical low.

“It’s a very changeable forecast and has been for the past week, which is fairly typical for this time of the year” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan. 

“After watching the models for over a week now there still remains some uncertainty has to how much rain will fall and how long it will last, but the basic rule of thumb is that Friday looks good for most places, Saturday wet in the South Island, dry in the North Island, then Sunday and Monday look fairly wet in the North but improving in the South”.

Mr Duncan urges people to stay up to date with WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasts across the weekend. 

You’ll find our Official Easter Weekend forecast here – it will be updated at least twice a day over the next six days.

Despite the rain WeatherWatch.co.nz says most places will have a fairly warm or mild weekend. 

A northerly flow should dominate the country on both Friday and Saturday with winds switching to the easterly quarter, or completely dying out in the South Island, on Sunday and Monday.

WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters have high confidence of rain warnings being issued this Friday and Saturday in Fiordland and on Saturday across the rest of the West Coast.  “This is mainly due to the slow movement of this incoming front and the fact that it will be delivering fairly heavy rain for much of the day” says Mr Duncan. Isolated thunderstorms are also expected along the West Coast.

The government forecast agrees, with their severe weather outlook also calling for a high chance of heavy rain on the West Coast this Saturday. 

No other severe weather is currently expected, although WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters will be keeping a close eye on the sub-tropical low as it’s predicted to also be slow moving and has the potential to bring wet weather to the upper North Island for a number of days next week.

The weather for the second week of the school holidays at this early stage shows mostly dry weather for the lower two thirds of New Zealand with rain or showers expected over the upper North Island.