A band of heavy rain temporarily cut out Sky TV for some subscribers in Auckland this afternoon due to rain fade.

The thick band of rain cleared the entire Auckland region around 5pm and is now about to clear the Coromandel Peninsula over the next hour or two.

Heavy rain should also ease in Bay of Plenty this evening while the rain clouds continue to head south east towards Gisborne and Hawkes Bay.  The angle of the rain means rainfall totals shouldn’t be high in the east.

Heavy showers are now coming ashore about Taranaki and as the rain clears Wanganui this afternoon those showers will likely move in early this evening.

The showers are associated with the centre of the low which will roughly cross over Cook Strait tonight.  A few showers are also likely to move into Northland and Auckland tonight or overnight.

Tomorrow will see a sunnier and drier day in the North Island with lighter south westerly winds and just a few showers here and there.

Northerly gusts hit over 70km/h around noon today in Auckland with gusts nearer to 100km/h on the islands out on the Hauraki Gulf.

The warm winds in the North Island saw Gisborne jump to 20 degrees this afternoon while at the same time Dunedin was on just 2 under quite a different weather pattern.

The South Island continues to be dominated by higher air pressure and little rain.