Foul weather on the way for Northland this weekend

Foul weather, with rain and strong winds, will hit Northland this weekend.

Northland's spectacular summer is about to get a major shake-up with foul weather, including rain and strong winds, set to batter the region this weekend.

But it's not Tropical Cyclone Oma that will do the damage, but a series of low pressure systems that will bring rain and strong winds, with Sunday likely to be the worst day, MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said.

Tropical Cyclone Oma will likely crash into Australia's Queensland coast over the weekend but it doesn't mean New Zealand is safe from a barrage of wet and wild weather.

Wild weather is on the way for New Zealand and should not be taken lightly as the weather watchdog was likely to issue a spate of weather watches and warnings tomorrow.

McInnes said the weather will start deteriorating tomorrow with a few showers in the morning then rain from afternoon. Northeasterly winds will strengthen in the afternoon.

Saturday will see rain, possibly heavy, easing in the afternoon, with strong northeasterly winds changing into strong southwesterly winds.

It was not possible at this stage to say how heavy the rain will be or how strong the winds will be before things calm down Saturday evening.

However, that won't be the end of things with Sunday weather set to hit ''with a bang'', he said.

''Wet is the operative word (on Sunday). The rain will be accompanied by strong winds.''

He said the foul weather will bring an end to the amazing run of great weather Northland has been experiencing this summer, but the sky will clear up and the sun will come out again from Tuesday.

''After your amazing run the rain had to come at some stage. No doubt though some people will be happy to see the rain as it's been very dry up there with very little rain, so for some it will be a relief.''

McInnes said since the start of the year only 38.8mm of rain had fallen in Whangārei until noon yesterday while 20.2mm has been recorded at Kaitaia Aero Club since the start of the year.

''If you look at Whangārei's January (rainfall) total of 10.2mm, that's well below the 30-year mean for the month of 88.8mm. At Kaitaia (Aero Club) the 8.4mm recorded in January was well below the January mean there of 68.7mm.''

McInnes said while all the forecasts were that Cyclone Oma would miss NZ and head towards Australia instead, there was still a chance it could change course and head this way.

He said therefore it was important people kept up to date with the latest weather forecasts at www.metservice.com.