Savage storm sweeping into Hawke's Bay from the south

A yacht sails through the glare of the sun's rays on Hawke Bay yesterday. The weather is expected to worsen from today. Photo / Warren Buckland

Heavy rain, strong winds, plummeting temperatures, and even the odd snowfall is expected to hammer the Hawke's Bay region from today.

Much of the North Island will feel the brunt of the storm that has ravaged the South Island over the past few days.

MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said it would be all action from today.

"The front slowly moved up the country yesterday and is making its way through the North Island today. We won't see any precipitation until today.

"We are talking rain developing in the morning, mainly spreading north of the region and possibly heavy falls. Southerlies will also develop and there will be gales in exposed places."

Yesterday morning, the front was sitting above Otago and was expected to move up the South Island through the day before hitting the lower North Island by the evening.

Tomorrow will be much of the same, with rain and heavy falls possible, as well as strong gusty southerlies and a high of 11C for Hastings and Napier.

Mr Doolin said it was a "significant weather event".

MetService released a severe weather watch last night for Hawke's Bay with the likelihood of significant snow accumulations below 1000m in the Hawke's Bay ranges from this afternoon through tomorrow morning.

A road snowfall warning was also issued with snow expected to affect the Napier-Taupo Rd from this afternoon through to tomorrow.

Today, from midday to midnight, 5cm to 10cm of snow may accumulate near the summit or possibly more, with lesser amounts down to 500m.

Meteorologists also forecast another period of significant snow accumulation to affect the road tomorrow.Looking ahead, things are expected to clear for the most part by Saturday, and Sunday seems to be the pick of the weekend, with a high of 14C and light winds.

However, temperatures will plummet overnight, with 0C forecast for Hastings and 1C for Napier.

On Saturday, showers are forecast to ease before clearing later and southerlies will die out.

Mr Doolin said what had happened on the South Island was a different scenario to what was set to hit the North Island.

"It is a little bit of a different situation, with the low feeding into the North Island encouraging heavy rain and strong winds. Snow is also not expected to fall as low as it has on the South Island."