Weather: Heavy rain warnings for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel

Get your brollies and raincoats ready New Zealand, wet weather is expected to drench most parts of the country for the next week.

MetService has alerted heavy rain warnings and watches for Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel for Sunday and Monday.

"Heavy rain cause streams and rivers to rise rapidly. Surface flooding and slips are also possible and driving conditions may be hazardous," MetService said.

Northland will be the first area to take the brunt of the wet weather, with up to 140mm of rain forecast from Sunday morning to midday Monday. Thunderstorms are likely.

Meteorologist Tui McInnes told the Herald the rainfall could be significant and because of the nature of the front it was difficult to predict exactly which way it is moving.

"There's a reasonably amount of uncertainty but most parts of the country could expect weather carrying through to the end of the working week," McInnes said.

What's causing all this 🌧?

A big low slowly moving over the Tasman Sea. You can see it very clearly in the true colour satellite image!

Loook at the NZ Satellite in real time https://t.co/rcECVupUMw pic.twitter.com/cCFpN7ubPP

— MetService (@MetService) March 19, 2022

The rain will likely be celebrated in some parts of the country, such as Tauranga, which has so far had only .8ml of rain this year. This time last year, the area had 19.4ml.

However, while many farmers have been waiting for the rain, they may not be welcoming this amount of rain and MetService encourages people to keep up to date with forecast reports as they could change rapidly.

It's expected to bucket down in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

The big wet is expected to travel down the country and turn east tomorrow afternoon.

Those in Auckland and the Coromandel can expect the heaviest rain on Monday, and possible thunderstorms.

North of Auckland's Harbour Bridge is likely to have the biggest downpours in the Super City.

The Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Tasman are also forecast for patches of heavy rain, and people are advised to keep an eye on weather reports.

While autumn weather was here, temperatures didn't appear to be dropping just yet, McInnes said.

"As the rain starts to move over the North Island, it's bringing a lot of warm air so it will actually raise temperatures a fair bit and possibly more noticeably at night," he said.