Today is a windy day across much of the country with gales and severe gales in some exposed areas. As we go into Friday those peak winds ease back a bit as cooler air moves in for a time. Saturday sees the next surge of windy westerlies with risk of severe gales in exposed places. While much of NZ looks windy, the windiest weather looks to be over the South Island and lower half of the North Island. Rain will be most frequent in the west and south-west of both main islands. We have your forecast through until Tuesday.

*AUSTRALIAN VIEWERS: Please note our usual Thursday Australia-only update has been this week shifted to tomorrow/Friday.