Sunday is going to be a wet and windy day for much of the North Island as a rapidly deepening low develops in the Tasman Sea, reports WeatherWatch.co.nz.

This morning MetService issued heavy rain warnings for Northland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua.

Heavy rain is also likely to affect Auckland, East Cape, Gisborne, Taupo and Hawkes Bay.

Strong to gale foce east to north east winds may also bring damaging gusts to the eastern Waikato on Sunday.

Up to 80mm is predicted with the rain setting in tomorrow morning in Northland and elsewhere in the afternoon and overnight Sunday into Monday morning.