A brief, weaker, cold snap will move up the South Island tomorrow at the same time a deepening sub-tropical low heads closer towards northern New Zealand.

Here are the main bullet points covering Thursday and Friday:

• Most areas will be fairly settled today with quite a bit of dry weather with sunny areas.
• Rain will fall on the West Coast, but it will gradually clear tonight.
• Strong winds across parts of the South island will also weaken tonight and tomorrow, excluding Cook Strait.
• Calm and dry weather may be short-lived, especially in the north eastern North island.
• It will turn to be cloudy across New Zealand Friday, and showers will occur in some areas, especially the lower South Island and eastern areas – then later on potentially the Far North and northern Northland.
• A developing low from the sub-tropics will approach the North island tomorrow night and patchy light rain will start for some eastern areas facing the Pacific.
• Localized heavy rain, lightning and gale winds will be possible in the North island on Saturday, mainly focused around Gisborne, Coromandel Peninsula and perhaps some eastern coastal parts of Auckland (like Great Barrier Island) and Northland.
• The SE wind flow that develops on Saturday for northern NZ may be fairly dry for western regions – despite the deep low very nearby.
  

– Wind maps. KEY: Yellow = 20 to 32km/h. Gold = 32 to 43km/h. Orange = 43 to 61km/h (gale force is 61+).

– Maps / The Weather Company (an IBM business and official business partner to WeatherWatch.co.nz)

– WeatherWatch.co.nz