A heavy rain watch has been issued for Western Bay of Plenty this afternoon.
MetService has predicted a front, preceded by a band of northeasterly rain, will move southwards over northern New Zealand today.
Rain is expected to be heavy for a time, and accumulations may reach short-duration warning criteria about Coromandel Peninsula and Western Bay.
A total of 50mm of rain is expected to fall in the Bay of Plenty west of Te Puke from 1pm-7pm. The same amount of rainfall is predicted over Coromandel Peninsula between 11am-5pm.
MetService meteorologist Claire Flynn said the watch had been put in place due to reasonable rainfall accumulations of up to 50mm this afternoon and early evening.