The spring winds are now building as we head towards the equinox in three weeks times says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

September usually sees a step up in windy days with westerlies being the predominant wind direction – usually a mixture of warm, dry, nor’westers and cooler, showery, sou’westers.

For eastern New Zealand the strong westerlies means one thing – drier weather, with moisture mostly falling on the western side of the main ranges in both islands.

The weather set up for Tuesday is a classic spring one – brisk/gusty winds mostly from the west or south west with showers for many areas.  The winds will be stronger and showers more frequent along the eastern Tasman Sea/western coastline of New Zealand, which includes Auckland.

This wind map (above), generated by ECMWF out of Europe, shows the spring winds moving in.  The green indicates strong to gale force winds, the yellow lighter but still fairly brisk. 

Note how the Southern Ocean shows the belt of strong winds while the northern half of the map is very calm.  As we head through September and October especially, those winds lift further north over all of New Zealand and much of the Tasman Sea.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says southern and central New Zealand are most exposed to the spring winds, but that Auckland is often forgotten as being a region vulnerable to blustery west and south west winds.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz