Big shower clouds are moving in towards Auckland, Waikato and Northland around the middle of today as winds shift ahead of tomorrow’s fast moving cold fronts.

Showers that were harmlessly moving across the Tasman Sea are this morning turning towards land.

The Weather Watch Centre has some confidence of an isolated rumble of thunder or hail shower but they rate the chances as “low”.  They say the main focus will be on heavy downpours which may be heavy enough to making driving hazardous.

Meanwhile light winds, dry weather and clear skies have greeted many South Islanders today.  However the Weather Watch Centre predicts conditions to do downhill quickly overnight with what they describe as “stormy weather” for many places tomorrow.

Western areas of both islands look set to be most exposed to the rough weather tomorrow and Saturday, moving to the east coast on Sunday and Monday.   Conditions aren’t likely to ease until the end of next week, provided another low pressure system doesn’t move straight in.

WeatherWatch.co.nz will have all the updates, all weekend long, in our main story on this large low pressure system – check our homepage for all the updates.