Northern New Zealand is in for a wet and windy week thanks to two sub-tropical lows says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

The low may warrant heavy rain warnings, most likely in Northland and Coromandel Peninsula with gale force winds across the Hauraki Gulf and Eastern Waikato.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the rain will be welcome news.  “Farms, gardens and water tanks are drying out across the country.  We went from a wet February to a very dry March and first 2 weeks of April”.

Rain is likely to affect much of the North Island for the first 3 days of the week starting later today in Northland but lasting until at least Wednesday.elsewhere.

A strong high to the east coupled with the deep low in the north may also drive gales into parts of Eastern Waikato, the Thames region and the Hauraki Gulf.  Windy conditions will remain elsewhere with cooler south easterlies dropping temperatures a few degrees.

The low may also drive in big swells around the North Island from New Plymouth to Northland and around to Bay of Plenty.

Meanwhile it’s the South Island’s turn to have a breather from the weather.  A large high spreading in from Tasmania should bring settled, cooler, weather from early next week.

We’ll have a more detailed forecast about these two lows around 4pm today.