A screenshot of Earth Sciences New Zealand's rain forecast map for Saturday morning. Photo: Screenshot / Earth Sciences New Zealand
A mostly fine weekend is forecast around the country but more rain and high winds are expected in some places on Labour Day.
The weekend should seem some respite from the high winds and rain of the last couple of days, but another cold front is set to move over the country on Monday.
Aucklanders can expect a mainly fine Saturday and Sunday but with the chance of a shower. A few showers are forecast from Monday afternoon with northwesterlies becoming strong.
In Wellington, the forecast is for a mainly fine Saturday, Sunday a few showers are likely and rain is forecast on Monday with northwesterlies that are expected to become gale force.
Christchurch's forecast is for fine on Saturday, with a few showers Sunday morning and rain on Monday.
Weather Watch's Philip Duncan told First Up there was still a lot of low pressure south of New Zealand and high pressure out towards Australia.
There would still be some westerly winds over the long weekend although not as intense as the last couple of days, he said.
"So if you're in places like Auckland, or if you're anywhere around the Cook Strait central New Zealand area or through the Southern Alps and around Canterbury on the foothills - those are the areas where it's going to be windy."
But there would be some sunny dry spells, he said.
"We're not talking about a washout weekend, we're not talking about a really storm weekend - but if you're in a tent, if you're in an awning, if you're outdoors, if you're planning something outdoors, you might find the wind is up in some areas and there could be those showers around the western side of the country."
It would be a bit wet on the West Coast of the South Island, he said.
"I feel for them because they've had a lot of rain over the last few months and you know a lot of days with cloud and wet weather."
The western side of the North Island would be drier but the weekend's driest weekend weather would be either at the top of the country or in the east, he said.
Reasonably mild weather was forecast until Labour Day with another cold front set to come over the South Island later on Sunday and going into Monday, he said.
"It's going to bring wintry weather to the South Island and at the same time bring a burst of windy warm nor-westers into the North Island, so it's kind of a classic spring set-up once more."
Overall the weekend weather was not looking too bad, but there may more weather warnings issued for some places heading into Monday, he said.
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