As firefighters continue to battle the blaze at Sky City, weather forecasters are focused on more gales coming in to the city today.

A cold front is moving through the city this morning bringing heavy showers, some squally with hail. (Squally showers are when winds suddenly ramp up, often over gale force, with very little warning).

Average winds speeds today are already near gale force at Sky City with gusts to 90 and 100km/h this morning expected around the CBD. (And isolated squalls may see gusts up to 120km/h). Sky City is also half way up the main hilly rise in Auckland, this makes it even more exposed to peak wind gusts – meaning gusts on the roof may be even higher than forecast.

This afternoon winds turn more south west and do start to ease, but only a little. Gusts into gale force and up to 80 or 90km/h will be likely across today and don’t look set to ease back further until tonight.

To drill down and see wind speeds for Auckland suburbs today, you can use our new website RuralWeather.co.nz. While it is a rural focused site it also has the most detailed weather data for every single Auckland suburb, in fact more weather data than any other website on earth. Please take a look for more information – and we’ve provided a couple examples below of what to expect today in Auckland windwise:

– www.RuralWeather.co.nz