The final weekend of winter on the meteorological calendar will bring spring-like westerlies across the nation, ramping up further on Sunday and easing gradually on Monday, but may return again next Wednesday.

The windy westerlies will boost temperatures following the current set-up over the South Island. Today and Friday more heavy rain and snow falls over the South Island with a lot of single digit maximum temperatures. By Saturday some eastern South Island places may shoot up into the 20s.

The North Island, which isn’t affected by the current cold air over the South Island, has cloud and showers about going into the weekend – and maybe some locally heavy rain in the upper North Island due to some northern offshore low pressure.

Next week the westerly winds dominate the beginning of spring.