After a wildly windy and occasionally wet weekend, MetService is forecasting a shift to typical summer weather for the start of the working week.

The past 24 hours have been somewhat extreme as a front swept northwards over the South Island and southern North Island, resulting in damaging gale northwesterly winds and a band of heavy rain in the west.

Warnings had been in place and wind gusts reached 148 km/h at Mt Kaukau, 113 km/h in Wellington City itself. Hot, dry northwesterlies gusted 109 km/h in Kaikōura and Culverden, and pushed the temperature in Timaru up to 31.8 °C.

Accompanying the front, about 220 mm of rain fell on the Tararua Range between 7pm on Sunday and 8am this morning. 

Rain was forecast to spread northwards over central and northern North Island areas on Monday, with heavy falls and thunderstorms possible over Waikato and inland Bay of Plenty.

A Heavy Rain Watch was in place for the Bay of Plenty ranges east of Ōpōtiki from 4pm today until 6am on Tuesday morning, when rain passes to the north of the motu and skies clear.

A showery westerly flow continues to push on to the South Island west coast today, resulting in further hot, dry northwesterly winds east of the Southern Alps. 

“While winds in Canterbury and other eastern regions today won’t be as strong as they were over the weekend, they still contribute to a heightened fire risk,” said MetService meteorologist Ngaire Wotherspoon.

These hot and dry conditions aren’t relieving any time soon, and the next couple of days bring a spell of typical summer weather.

Clear skies and light winds are forecast for central Aotearoa New Zealand, while bursts of rain remain over the south and west of the South Island.

Conditions remain dry and hot in the east of the country.

“Daytime temperatures are forecast to reach the mid-to-high twenties in Canterbury and Marlborough for the rest of the week, as well as further north in Hawke’s Bay. Fire danger is on the rise with the beginning of summer, and it is recommended that anyone planning on lighting a fire or doing anything that could cause a spark - especially in these dry eastern areas - consult checkitsalright.nz first.”

Thursday brings warm and wet weather to the North Island as a low-pressure system descends from the northwest, and temperatures in the east are forecast to surge into the low thirties by the end of the working week.