Weather clears as Easter holiday ends

MetService has issued a warning of possible thunderstorms in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay. Graphic / MetService

It's been the wettest first half of April on record at Whakatane and on the Coromandel - but the weather is finally clearing today as the Easter holiday ends.

MetService meteorologist April Clark said the battered eastern Bay of Plenty was still getting heavy showers this morning but they should end by this evening.

The rain belt is moving east and south, with moderate risk of thunderstorms about Hawke's Bay and Gisborne from this afternoon.

"We are expecting those showers to clear into the evening," Clark said.

It has also been raining heavily around Kaikoura, and a cold front is moving on to Otago and Southland bringing showers later this afternoon and evening.

Some showers may linger in Gisborne and Hawke's Bay early tomorrow, but the weather is expected to clear early in the rest of the country.

"Taranaki and Auckland are already seeing fine spells. That should be getting better," Clark said. "It's looking fairly settled for the week."

Temperatures are forecast to reach a fairly balmy 20C today in Auckland and Tauranga, 19C in Hamilton, 17C in Wellington and 16C in Christchurch and Dunedin.

However the cold front will bring lower temperatures to the southern South Island, with highs dropping tomorrow to 13C in Gore and 14C in Dunedin.

Clark said the unusually wet start to the month was caused by the combination of three big weather events in a row.

By yesterday Whakatane had recorded 267mm of rain so far this month, compared with an average of 117mm for the whole of April, and Whitianga recorded 338mm so far compared with its April average of 168mm.

Although Auckland dodged most of the effects of Cyclone Cook because the storm tracked east of the city, Clark said its wind gusts reached the maximums predicted where it hit in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

"It's very unusual to have three such rain events within a month," she said.

"It should be easing off. It looks like we are not going to get another event like that again for the rest of the month."