Here’s what is making the weather headlines today.

FRONT BARRELS IN FROM THE WEST TODAY

A front pushes in from the Tasman Sea today bringing rain for the West Coast, showers may turn to rain this afternoon for the western North Island also. Another round of thunderstorms is possible but the risk won’t be as great as it was yesterday, the West Coat has the best chance of a storm.

Eastern regions will likely see warm temperatures though reaching into the low to mid twenties.

COOK STRAIT TO SEE STRONG WINDS

Winds through Cook Strait will likely be strong today from the north with a chance of gales then starting to ease from this evening.

• 

• 

PLENTY OF FRONTAL ACTIVITY ON THE WAY

The coming week sees lots of fronts coming out of the Tasman Sea, generally the airflow will likely be coming in from the western quarter so that means more wet weather in the west, drier weather in the east.

There will be room at times though for a few southwest changes to work up the eastern side of the country so hopefully showers move through when they do.

Long range models are indicating a large high early December so perhaps things will calm down then.

The precipitation percentage of normal map below shows the rain pattern for the next seven days, western regions naturally looking wetter than in the east. Just Canterbury appears to be drier than normal.