High pressure is controlling much of our weather for Saturday, then a storm south of NZ drives in some severe weather on Sunday and westerlies blowing through to kick off next week.

On Saturday cooler air makes things a bit more refreshing for many places as high pressure moves closer to NZ with a west to south-west flow but still a few afternoon downpours around some of the ranges.

The calmer weather is short lived with a storm south of the South Island on Sunday driving in yet another burst of strong to gale nor’westers up the country with eastern and northern heat and rain over the West Coast – with some spillover into Southland and Otago and surrounds. Severe weather warnings for heavy West Coast rain and severe gale nor-westers across the South Island and maybe around the lower North Island are looking likely from late Saturday in the lower South Island to Sunday and early Monday further northwards. Heat returns on Sunday for many places thanks to the nor-westers.

On Monday a broken and weakening cold front moves into the North Island from the west with westerlies across NZ and drier weather in other regions further down NZ. The coldest of the air looks to now remain south of the nation.

Tuesday sees NZ’s weather settling down again as high pressure in the Tasman Sea drifts closer but rain or showers in the south to south-west of the South Island and maybe some isolated showers in the North Island are likely.

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