Weather to rain on Adele's parade - but Thursday the pick of the bunch

People who have tickets to Adele's Thursday night concert are likely to stay drier than those at the weekend, MetService has confirmed.

Meteorologist Tom Adams said a front making its way across the Tasman was not due to make its presence felt in the upper North Island until Friday.

It will bring scattered showers for Friday and Saturday but its punch won't be felt fully until Sunday, when it would be wet in most of the North Island.

"It's pretty likely you're going to see some rain. It's not going to be raining the whole time, but we've got this northeast flow which means areas in Coromandel and Bay of Plenty are going to be pretty soaked for most of the weekend, but Auckland isn't going to be as bad as them."

Adele has three concerts this week at Mt Smart Stadium, the first of which kicks off on Thursday night, with the remaining two on Saturday and Sunday nights.

"Thursday is the pick of the next five days actually. It's been quite cloudy in Auckland today and quite a lot of the country. We get a brief hiatus when that cloud clears up tomorrow morning and we get a nice afternoon and southwesterly breezes before it all comes back again on Friday."

There will be a few isolated showers on Friday afternoon and evening, before the sun makes a brief appearance in Auckland on Saturday morning.

The cloud will set in shortly after before the scattered rain kicks off "sometime in the afternoon".

However, Sunday was "looking like the wet one".

"There could be some heavy falls. Those northeasterlies are going to keep piling the cloud in all day."

The Black Caps are also playing South Africa in Hamilton on Saturday, the same day the nine-day mountain biking festival Crankworx begins in Rotorua.

Adams said both Hamilton and Rotorua would be susceptible to isolated showers on Saturday, but also both likely to feel the brunt of the front as it lands on Sunday.

"When we get to Sunday, when the low actually starts crossing the country, it's pretty indiscriminate."

The driest city was likely to be Christchurch, he said.

The only bonus with the northwest front was the lack of strong wind.

"One thing about it, sometimes when we get these lows come over they can be really windy ... there will be some wind, but it doesn't look like wind will be a major player this weekend."

However, Weatherwatch's Philip Duncan said although it was still too early to confirm, the front does bring a chance of localised flooding for northern New Zealand.

"The issue with long range is that we can't work out if these potentially heavy downpours will be over land or out at sea, but the low is likely to make 'landfall' in the North Island later on Sunday, bringing a period of rain to a number of regions."

The South Island will have high pressure trying to push back against the low, meaning there may be some patchy rain for northern parts like Nelson, Blenheim or north of Westport.

"But over the weekend Saturday's southerly flow will give way to a cloudier, more humid and drizzly north-to-northeast flow on Sunday.

"Sunday will be wettest in the North Island too, with heavy falls possible in the northern half coming in from the north and west."