The rain radar is this afternoon showing clear skies over the flooded eastern Bay of Plenty region but in the past hour the rain radar has detected a band of rain moving in off the North Island’s west coast.

WeatherWatch.co.nz predicts the drenched areas of the North Island will mostly miss out on any significant rain tonight as the first of several fronts from a large low moves in.

Heaviest rain is likely to be about the West Coast with the rain band weakening and narrowing as it heads north, especially north of about Taranaki.

However heavier rain is predicted to move into the North Island tomorrow along with a brief cold change on Wednesday and Thursday.