Northern and western areas of New Zealand could be in for a drenching over the weekend or on Monday as a spring storm develops out in the Tasman Sea.

“Much of the Tasman Sea will be engulfed by a large area of low pressure  by the weekend.  Definitely not a weekend to be sailing in the Tasman” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.

The way the air pressure is forecast to align shows a strong north to north west flow over the country this weekend which will spark big temperatures in the east from Gisborne to Otago and deliver heavy rain, especially to the South Island’s west coast, but also to places like Mt Taranaki and the hills of Waitomo in the north.

“Our forecasts are definitely showing plenty of rain or showers for northern New Zealand, such as Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and Waikato either on Sunday but most likely Monday, however the bulk of the heavy rain will be in the weekend along the West Coast” says Philip Duncan.  “It’s too early to say if the rain will move over into eastern areas where farms are starting to dry out but the angle that this system is coming in from doesn’t really favour much rainfall in the east”.

Mr Duncan says eastern areas will be hot and windy across the weekend.  “Highs will reach into the late 20s along the east coast.  It’s going to be another summer weekend for the east”.

Northern New Zealand should be humid with temperatures in the low to mid 20s this weekend.  Overnight lows may also be quite high, unlikely to dip below 16 or 17 on Sunday night as humid and gusty nor’easterlies develop.