Highs to the north, east and south west of the country will trap a front over central New Zealand today making the front stationery near Cook Strait.

That means while northern and southern New Zealand remains dry and mainly sunny today patchy rain or drizzle will move into central New Zealand – roughly from Nelson to New Plymouth and most places in between.  Western areas, like Kapiti, will most likely get heavier falls.

This cloudy/damp weather will linger for at least 2 to 3 days.

Yesterday strong gusty nor’westers blasted a number of eastern areas pushing the temperature into the mid 20s across Hawkes Bay and lower 20s across Canterbury.  Today the winds will be much lighter and temperatures in those regions will be closer to the late teens/maybe 20.

Due to that high air pressure over northern New Zealand the rain and drizzle clouds will stop just north of Taranaki so for those regions north of Central Plateau another sunny, warm, day is on the way with little in the way of wind.

Temperatures for these regions will again be closer to 20 with afternoon sea breezes.

A cold southerly is, however, on the way for southern New Zealand tomorrow – and will move up the South Island as the week progresses.

Our Labour Weekend low is still expected to develop (actually between all those high pressure systems we mentioned at the top of this story).  The clouds will start spiralling into a small depression in the central Tasman Sea later today growing to about the size of New Zealand by the end of the week.  It’s still likely to track across the North Island on Saturday and could create a stark contrast in temperatures across the nation for the start of the long weekend.. 

Northern regions are likely to be mild and humid while a bitterly cold southerly may create winter-like temperatures in southern regions.