A spring surge of gales is expected over the coming 24 hours in the lower NI then again nationwide this Fri/Sat. The first set of potentially damaging winds will be over the next day in the lower North Island – mainly Wellington and southern coastal Wairarapa and the southern entrance to Cook Strait. This is due to a nearby low pressure zone.

By Friday a new low in the Southern Ocean will work with a high pressure zone in the south-eastern corner of Australia to drive in a burst of gale force westerlies up the South Island and into the North Island.

By Saturday those winds spread as far north as Auckland City with gusts over 100km/h possible. In true spring style it all blows through fast though.

We have your NZ outlook to Monday – plus we cover some parts of Australia too, especially the south-east which is caught up in the same sometimes-windy pattern NZ has.

🎥💨Our high-res wind gust animation for the next 7 days.

We've slowed down the animation to make it clearer to see dates & times (NZ is 13 hours ahead of UTC, so just over half a day ahead of the time stamp).

🔴Gales
🟣Purple indicates damaging windshttps://t.co/gb7E1quzdb pic.twitter.com/wsrAxExY9Y

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) September 27, 2023