Easter weather bad news for farmers

Fine weather over the Easter weekend is good news for holidaymakers but bad for most farmers waiting for significant rain to break the drought.

The West Coast was likely to see the most rain and there was a chance parts of the upper North Island could receive a few sporadic showers, WeatherWatch said.

"In fact, the start of the long break could be the warmest day overall of the entire weekend," weather analyst Richard Green said.

"If you're taking to the skies, or going by water, most areas should be ideal with very little reason to be concerned."

WeatherWatch said the West Coast could be the only trouble spot tomorrow and even then rain would be focused on southern Westland and Fiordland.

A few lighter areas of rain could swing over Southland late in the day.

Saturday could be a little wetter over western and southern parts of the South Island as a frontal system edges closer to the country but elsewhere it would remain dry with lots of sunshine and higher than average temperatures for many areas.

Winds could pick up a little over inland and southern areas of the South Island but nothing too excessive, WeatherWatch said.

Easter Sunday could see more cloud roll in but not much else.

There would be a risk of a shower but areas of cloud were more likely over some centres across the upper north of the North Island.

"Auckland could be on the receiving of a fairly cloudy looking Easter Sunday but as far as showers are concerned there doesn't appear to be hardly anything on that front," head weather analyst Philip Duncan said.

"There are a few showers about areas of the northern half but they are lurking offshore presently."

Easter Monday would see skies clearing a little overall but western parts of the South Island might not have seen the end of showers.

It was possible there would be showers over the northeast but they were looking sparse at this stage.

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