Strong winds are once again the main theme of the weather around a number of parts of New Zealand on Monday with a cold front coming in on Monday night to the lower South Island and then heads northwards into Tuesday.

Light winds in the north mean fog patches this morning and again tonight.

Tuesday will have wet weather and colder air thanks to that cold front, bringing a south to south-west change behind it, lingering but easing on Wednesday.

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Let’s get into the forecast for Monday…

RAIN:
Many places around the country are dry however a few remaining showers might be possible in the North Island (especially Northland). In the South Island rain does return to the southern West Coast later and this does become heavy Monday night/overnight as it moves northwards. Check your local WeatherWatch hourly forecast for more details – also watch for any possible MetService rain warnings as rain sets in overnight. Some of the West Coast rain may spill over to Southland and parts of Otago, mainly Monday night or overnight but doesn’t look to be much there.

WIND:
Wind will again be the feature of our weather for Monday with strong to gale force winds in the South Island and around Cook Street and Wellington. Those wind may become severe gale at times Monday and Monday night/overnight. Windy weather may surge off and on and may not be constant for everyone and wind warnings are certainly possible. Even stronger winds are possible Monday night, especially around the South Island (along the eastern side, Southern Alps and up to Cook Street and lower North Island). Elsewhere north-west winds continue on, generally lighter the further north you are.

TEMPERATURES:
Because of the airflow on Monday, with many places getting north or north-west winds, temperatures will be again above average for this time of the year (as we saw a number of places over the weekend in the 20s and that also helped spark some of those thunderstorms – Monday shouldn’t see much in the way of thunderstorms).

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WEEK AHEAD:
A surge of rain and colder south to south westerly winds moves up New Zealand on Tuesday and there might be a light dusting of snow on some of the mountains and ranges. It’s possible this cold front may spark some further Thunderstorms.

Wednesday sees that cold front fall apart over the North Island with just a few showers remaining by the end of the day and they should clear by night time.

The usual south-westerly winds come in on Thursday with a few western showers.

Friday, at this stage, looks to have mild Westerly winds returning across the country – windier in some places.

As always drill down deeper with your hyper-local, hourly, 10 day forecasts at WeatherWatch.co.nz – or download our app.