Autumn turns on a mixed weather bag for first week of school holidays

The weather will be a mixed bag for the first week of school holidays. Photo / Bevan Conley

Autumn is a bag of tricks for the first week of the school holidays with flashes of fine weather and periods of rain and wind being forecast.

"Nobody is going to get through the week without seeing any rain," said MetService meteorologist Tom Adams.

His advice to parents is to remember it is autumn, and that means changeable weather conditions starting with a cold front moving up the country yesterday with showery conditions.

His next piece of advice is to take advantage of fine weather today and tomorrow and get outdoors before another low pressure system moves towards the upper North Island with some late rain on Tuesday, particularly in Northland.

Come Wednesday, most of the country will see some rain from the low pressure system.

"That improves for Thursday but there is another trough just waiting so it is a very short clearance before the rain comes back in on Friday and then that moves through and the cycle pretty much repeats," said Adams.

He said people should keep a sharp eye out for a pattern and rhythm to the weather, adding things are pretty fast moving and if the weather does turn bad it will go through relatively quickly.

"It just makes it more and more important to check the forecast before you plan outdoor activities. If you plan ahead you can definitely find some good conditions outside," Adams said.