Rather surprisingly, winds have picked up this morning and a little more than expected in some areas.

More exposed parts of Northland have easterlies of more than 60 kph whereas Whangarei, Kaitaia and Kerikeri are seeing them peak around the 40 kph mark.

Auckland has the easterly as well gusting around the 40 kph mark and it could climb a little higher especially in exposed areas.

Wellington is starting to see the wind funnel through and a northerly is gusting up around the 50-60 kph mark as well.

A norwester is picking up in and around Blenheim but elsewhere over the mainland the winds have been either non existent or just a relatively gentle (the exception being Southwest Cape with a howling westerly but that is very common!)

Temperatures are almost in the low to mid 20s nationally and are now gathering momentum. It shouldn’t be too long before we see a few areas cross the 30 degree mark.

Main centres at 10.40am…

Auckland 24

Tauranga 25

Hamilton 23

Wellington 21

Christchurch 21

Dunedin 20