Central and southern areas of the country shouldn’t experience the cold of the last 2 nights as cloud starts to thicken up in a number of areas and most temperatures should stay on the positive side of zero.

Further north it’s a different story with many parts of the upper North Island seeing overnight lows in double figures which is about 4 or 5 degrees above normal.

Accompanying the warmer temperatures is some rain however, with a building nor’ easter which is expected to deliver some heavy falls during the hours of darkness and thunderstorms are a possibility too.

17 degrees was the nationwide high today for many North Island centres but inland areas of the south shivered, with Alexandra just hitting 5 degrees while Gore clocked up with 8 and yet coastal regions in the south fared better with the likes of Invercargill on 14 degrees.