UPDATED

It looks as though the week will end on a wet note thanks to a slow moving band of rain in the eastern and northern Tasman Sea.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says rain is expected to set in across northern New Zealand during Thursday, Friday and Saturday as the band slowly moves east – held up by a large high in the Pacific Ocean.

Gale force winds have been blowing through Cape Reinga and some exposed coastal parts of Northland since Sunday and the windy conditions aren’t predicted to ease until Friday when the front has passed by however a sub-tropical low may bring more wind again later in the weekend. Winds have backed off a bit today across Auckland and Northland with gusts in the Far North dropping from 100km/h to 70km/h.

MetService is also monitoring the low closely saying they have “moderate confidence” of heavy rain for Northland, northern Auckland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and the Nelson ranges They have “high confidence” of heavy rain on Thursday for the West Coast.

The rain is being fueled by low pressure in the Tasman Sea which isn’t especially dramatic on the weather maps however a sub-tropical low, expected to form at the end of the week and pass to the east of Gisborne during the weekend, may bring strong to gale force southerlies for Wellington on Sunday along with rough seas along the nation’s east coast. 

7:30am Observations

• Far North:  Gale force easterlies
• Whangarei 12
• Auckland between 9 and 11
• Hamilton 7
• Paeroa, Tauranga 12
• Gisborne 2
• Rotorua 9
• Taupo 6
• Napier 1
• Hastings -1
• New Plymouth 8
• Hawera 7
• Wanganui 6
• Palmerston North 3
• Wellington 11
• Nelson 9
• Blenheim 6
• Kaikoura 14
• Christchurch, Timaru 4
• Dunedin, Oamaru 6
• Westport 11
• Wanaka, Queenstown 7
• Invercargill, Gore 5