Rain to fall in patches through till weekend

L-R Peteli Saulala, 8, Naite Saulala, 10 and Anaraenae Saulala, 9. Photo/Nick Reed

Queen's Birthday rewarded most holiday makers with some sunshine over the weekend, although there were plenty of wet patches. The sunny skies and temperatures in the teens even tempted some brave souls in for a winter swim today.

Auckland reached a high of 16C, spurring (L-R) Peteli, 8, Naite, 10, and Anaraenae Saulala, 9, right, to take a dip at Mission Bay Beach.

MetService blamed a low to the west of the country for bringing showery weather across the North Island.

A trough moving to the west also briefly created a waterspout off the coast of Taranaki today, with locals posting footage of the phenomenon to social media.

MetService meteorologist April Clark said waterspouts were tricky to track, and were often small scale weather features associated with isolated thunderstorms.

The wind off the coast of New Plymouth was moving in two different directions at different heights, and combined with the trough to create the right conditions for the spout, she said.

Further south there was scattered rain but a generally sunny outlook for most of the South Island. Snow fell on Sunday night down to 600m as far north as Takaka Hill.

The showery weather was to ease tonight, except in the Bay of Plenty where a severe weather watch is in place.

Hail and thunderstorms were possible overnight tonight in the Bay, Metservice said, and a burst of heavy rain could bring up to 80mm of rainfall in 12 hours.

Showers elsewhere in the North Island were expected to ease overnight, with cloud and a few wet patches continuing tomorrow as the slow-moving low crosses the North Island from the west.

Metservice said the low would head off east on Wednesday, and southerly winds would begin to dry out most of the North Island. Auckland could see the odd shower through till the evening but they should ease up before the Lions face the Blues at Eden Park.

Fine weather with the occasional shower would continue through the week before rain sets in at the weekend, with sunny skies forecast to return for the start of next week.