Low pressure is today over the upper North Island, replaced by a surge of gale west to south-west winds this weekend, then next week the polar boundary comes back – and may well go nationwide for a few days, bringing a return to winter air and frosts into both main islands.

We track the timing of the severe gales – and where they will most likely be – then the colder changes coming in next week.

Huge storms over the Southern Ocean, coupled with very strong high pressure over eastern Australia/western Tasman Sea is putting NZ in the middle of the belt of windy weather.

We also have an 8 day rainfall map, thanks to Farmlands, showing where the wet weather will (and won’t) fall.