High pressure is departing and low pressure is challenging it – the result will be a windy weekend with strong to gale force winds in some places by Sunday coupled with heavy rain in the west.

For Friday the North Island is fairly settled under high pressure but milder north to north west winds build over the South Island with rain becoming heavy later on the West Coast.

The weekend looks rough in a number of regions with severe weather likely.

Finally with a big whale in Wellington harbour right now we also take a look at weather conditions in the Capital (spoiler alert: windy!).