A high is centred in the Tasman Sea west of the North Island on Thursday directing a west to northwesterly airflow over New Zealand.

For much of the North Island expect mainly sunny weather, westerly breezes in the west, afternoon northerlies about the Bay Of Plenty. Afternoon easterlies for Hawkes Bay and perhaps Gisborne. Wellington sees breezy to brisk northerlies from afternoon.

Cloudy for the West Coast of the South Island with rain, heavy at times especially about Fiordland where there may be a few thunderstorms. Mainly sunny in the east from Canterbury up through to Nelson, winds will be fairly breezy perhaps even gusty from the northwest at times.

Areas of rain about Southland spreading into Otago in the afternoon, rain may become heavy in the afternoon and perhaps even the chance of a thunderstorm or two nearer coastal Otago. There is an outside chance a few of these showers may spread into South Canterbury late afternoon / evening.

Temperatures reaching into the mid 20’s for the areas marked below in yellow.

Blue – Heavy form of precipitation.
Purple – Strong winds
Yellow – Temperatures around the mid 20 degree mark or over.

Not all regions and towns have been mentioned above. For specific 10 day information for your city, town, rural community or island please see the 1500 forecasts on our homepage!

– Aaron Wilkinson, WeatherWatch.co.nz