Australia

A band of rain is slowly tracking eastwards across the North Island and behind it are sunnier skies and warm light northerly quarter winds. These light winds and dry skies lie in between the main deep low out in the Tasman Sea (that has brought severe weather to south eastern Australia for the past three days) and the band of rain crossing northern New Zealand this weekend.

Updated 9:15am --- More heavy rain for some parts of the North Island today while patchy rain also expands over the upper half of the South Island. The storm in the Tasman Sea remains well away from New Zealand after bringing significant flooding to Hobart, Tasmania, on Friday night.

The Insurance Council of Australia has declared a catastrophe for storm damage in southern Tasmania, as the floodwaters recede and the rain heads to the state's north-east.

The council's CEO, Rob Whelan, said more than 1,000 claims had already been lodged by Friday afternoon.

With a deep and large low near south eastern Australia expected to produce severe gales there many are curious if they will hit New Zealand too. The system is complicated but can be explained fairly simply when it comes to the winds.

Basically there are three areas of wind:

A storm in the Tasman Sea is set to bring a blast of severe weather to the south eastern side of Australia but what does it mean for New Zealand specifically?

The largest wave ever recorded in the Southern Ocean, a storm in the Tasman Sea and heavy sub-tropical rain - just some of the thngs we touch on in today’s weather video.

We cover the big wave captured by MetOcean following a big storm south of New Zealand on Tuesday, we then focus on the next storm - one in the Tasman Sea.

Extensive Coverage --- A significant storm is developing in the Tasman Sea and will bring extreme conditions to the south eastern side of Australia while drenching parts of New Zealand too.

There's a lot to cover so we'll keep Australia and New Zealand weather separate and in bullet points below.

On Tuesday night the MetOcean Solutions wave buoy moored in the Southern Ocean just south of New Zealand recorded a massive 23.8 m wave.

High pressure dominates both main islands of New Zealand for Wednesday but over Thursday and Friday it slips away and sub-tropical northerlies bringing rain clouds to the west will start to build.

By Saturday and Sunday there may be heavy falls over the North Island then it should slowly ease on Sunday.