Winds at the centre of the Tasman Sea low were sustained at 90km/h last night now making it a strong storm however it remains relatively small. 

The low is now parallel with the Far North but is located close to the middle of the Tasman Sea.  The clouds are spiraling around what looks like an ‘eye’, an area in the centre with no cloud cover.

Gales blasted Cape Reinga over night and remain to do so this morning.  Winds there are also averaging 90km/h with gusts around 120km/h.

Winds across the Hauraki Gulf and Auckland Harbour have reached gale force with gusts up to 85km/h.

It’s a mild start across the top part of the country this morning with temperatures in Auckland and Northland around the 17 and 18 degree mark, with similar temperatures expected for dawn services tomorrow in these regions – significantly warmer than previous years and a degree or two warmer than WeatherWatch.co.nz predicted yesterday.

The strong winds remain north of Waikato however will drift further south over the North Island during this afternoon.

Lower Hutt, Levin and Ohakea are the coolest North Island centres at sunrise with just 6 degrees… it’s 7 in Taupo.

In the South Island cloud cover is now rolling in from the Tasman storm.  It’s a cold morning especially south of Banks Peninsula where skies are mostly clear.  Further north cloud cover has warmed things up a bit.

A clear example of this is it’s currently 9 degrees in Kaikoura but only 2 in Christchurch and Timaru, 1 in Dunedin, Invercargill and Wanaka and 0 in Queenstown and Lumsden.

RAIN TRACKER

A few light showers over Northland, Great Barrier Island and northern Coromandel Peninsula also on the West Coast north of Greymouth.

We don’t anticipate much change in the next few hours, our next update will be later this morning.