Weekend weather: Windy, showery in north, sunny in south

Metservice's Rain Radar is showing a low over the east of the upper North Island. Picture / MetService

It'll be a windy, showery weekend for those in the upper North Island but further south it's set to be sunny and warm.

Metservice meteorologist Claire Flynn said a ridge of high pressure was sitting over the South Island, but a low is hanging around the North Island, bringing wind and spreading rain over eastern areas of Northland and Auckland.

"Auckland's got patchy, light rain at the moment. However, in the likes of Great Barrier Island that rain will be more significant and also the winds are quite strong there."

Gusts of up to 50km/h had swept through the region this morning and were expected to reach 90km/h later today.

The rain is forecast to spread over Waikato and Bay of Plenty and bring some showers to Gisborne.

"Hamilton is kind of getting cloudier this morning. Then they should get some patchy, light rain this evening. It's not as windy there as up in Auckland," Flynn said.

"But further south in the North Island and also in the South Island it should be mostly fine today."

Clouds above Wellington were expected to break up, bringing a fine afternoon.

It will also be mainly fine in Christchurch and Dunedin.

Similar weather was expected tomorrow across the country.

It will be a bit rainy in Auckland and in Hamilton Saturday should start off with patchy rain, but it's expected to clear and it should be fine by midday.

"That low's not moving very quickly. So tomorrow the North Island should be mostly fine but we'll still have a few showers in the east, for the likes of Gisborne and Hawke's Bay," Flynn said.

There'll be some cloud around in Wellington too, but there the sky should stay dry. The South Island, again, should be mostly fine.

Temperatures for most areas would be about average this weekend.

Some of the warmer spots include Wanaka which will get up to 25C on Sunday and Reefton where it is expected to reach 26C.

It will be cool in Gisborne, Napier and Hastings - about 15C or 16C - because the low was bringing southeast winds.

For the majority of Kiwis, next week will start off sunny, Flynn said.

"That low's really moving away by Monday. The high pressure's taking control of things by then, so again it should be mostly fine for most of the country, just the odd shower about Northland and Gisborne and northern Hawke's Bay."

Today's forecast
Auckland: Cloud increasing, light rain developing by afternoon. Southeasterlies, strong in exposed places, 19C high
Hamilton: Fine at first then high cloud increasing, and light rain developing in the evening. Southeasterlies. High of 20C
Tauranga: High cloud increasing. Light rain developing evening. Gusty southeasterlies, 20C high
Wellington: Fine apart from some morning cloud. Strong southeasterlies, 14C high
Christchurch: Morning cloud, then fine. Light winds, high of 18C
Dunedin: Fine apart from evening cloud. Light winds, high of 16C
(Source: MetService)