A new weather pattern lasting until the weekend is about to bring heavy rain and gales to some parts of the country.  It’s also going to be warmer, significantly so at night.

Large rain clouds are building in the western Tasman Sea with lightning detectors both here in New Zealand and along Australia’s east coast detecting thousands of strikes across the open waters.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says some places in the west will be in for a drenching.  “All the usual places will see heavy rain, such as the West Coast, the Nelson Ranges and Mt Taranaki however heavy falls may also affect a number of western and northern facing regions right up Bay of Plenty and Coromandel”.

Mr Duncan says the wet weather could linger for several days.  “With a blocking high to the east this low has a number of days to develop bringing another period of rain towards the end of the week – some thunderstorms in the west are quite likely”.

The wetter weather and northerly flow means most places will be warmer, especially at night.  “It’s not going to be tropical by any means but it will be much warmer than it has been.  After tonight we’ll have several frost free days”.

Overnight lows are expected to be at around 10 degrees higher than they were last week with daytime highs also lifting to the mid to upper teens for Auckland and Northland.

Gale force easterlies gusting to almost 100km/h have been affecting the northern tip of New Zealand this morning with gusty easterlies up to 60km/h affecting Auckland.  The winds aren’t expected to increase further.

On Saturday a cold southerly change will again spread up the country, however computer models don’t indicate it to be a polar blast.  Conditions for the All Blacks taking on France in Dunedin on Saturday night show a cold southerly and a temperature around 5, with a feels like temperature closer to zero.

Meanwhile the cold air remains over Southland from this morning.  It was -6 in Lumsden at 7am and has only climbed to 3 degrees so far.   

In Auckland it’s 14 with a cold easterly, just 11 in Hamilton, 10 in Wellington and only 8 in Christchurch.  Dunedin has 9.

Parts of Central Otago remain near zero this afternoon while Cape Reinga is warmest on 15.