A colder change is coming for southern NZ later on Thursday and into Friday, with a southerly flow going nationwide – easing humidity and heat for a number of regions.

This weekend the heat returns again, especially by Sunday, with windy nor’westers and potential severe gales developing around the South Island on Monday.

By Tuesday that windy nor’wester heads into the North Island as a cold front slowly moves up the West Coast, bringing some wet weather into the western North Island.

TROPICS
A tropical cyclone may potentially be named this weekend around Vanuatu – but it’s a fairly borderline system thanks to high pressure to its south nearer to NZ. Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga may all get rain or thunderstorms from it – with a chance of strong winds for Vanuatu in particular. We show you a few maps to make sense of the current tracking/thinking.