It looks as though the weather forecast this Labour Weekend will be its usual changeable self says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the prediction for the long weekend is fairly “typical” of Labour Weekend.

“We have high pressure to the north of New Zealand and some aggressive lows in the Southern Ocean.  This weekend there’ll be a battle of air pressure over the country and it looks as though the high won’t win” says Mr Duncan.

So the forecast currently calls for a strong south west flow across the country with a potential southerly on Sunday zipping up the eastern coastline too, while heavy rain may move up the entire western coastline during Sunday and Monday.

Blustery west to south west winds could mean sunny weather for northern and eastern regions too – although if winds tilt more southerly it would mean rain or showers up the east coast too.

Mr Duncan says in short the weekend will be messy with a mixture of sunny, dry, weather, strong winds and a 60% chance of a period of rain or showers for most regions, especially in the south and west.

Sunniest and driest areas are in the north of both islands, such as Nelson, Marlborough, Northland, eastern Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty.

The cold change over the weekend may see some parts of Southland and Otago struggle to even make double digits and could again bring snow to the southern ski fields.  There’s a 30% chance of snow in Queenstown on Sunday night/Monday.

Sea Temperatures

And what about taking a dip in the sea?  If you’re brave enough to venture into the water this long weekend you may want to put on a wet suit first.  

Sea surface temperatures in the upper North Island are only in their mid-teens, dropping into the low teens for the lower North Island, around 10 to 12 degrees for the upper South Island and just 9 or 10 degrees around Dunedin.

– Homepage image / New Plymouth, Greg Taylor

See exactly where the fronts, lows, wind and rain will be this long weekend using our interactive maps page – powered by Weathermap.