On Wednesday we have a hot north to northwesterly airflow over New Zealand, while an anticyclone is centred out to the east of the country, in the Pacific.

A fairly cloudy day for the North Island awaits, although there may be a few afternoon sunny areas about the Waikato and Bay Of Plenty northwards.
Further south it’s looking cloudy, while any morning showers in the east (from Gisborne to Wairarapa) then clear by afternoon.
In the west it’s looking like there could be the odd patchy shower or drizzly area for much of the day, with west to northwest winds.

For the South Island it’s cloudy in the west with rain again, while the odd heavy fall is possible too – mainly for North Westland.
Mainly sunny in the east, with more high temperatures, while there’s some high cloud too, especially for the Marlborough region.

Isolated showers are possible late in the afternoon and in the evening for parts of Southland and Otago, otherwise it’s going to be a mainly sunny and hot day down there.

– Aaron Wilkinson & Drew Chappell, WeatherWatch.co.nz