It may be the start of meteorological summer, but an active week is ahead.

This week will bring a broad range of weather: heavy rain, thunderstorms, strong winds, and sunny spells to finish the week off.

The North Island, including the Bay of Plenty, is in for a warm and humid start, while the south will have cooler temperatures throughout.

“We start the week with comparatively settled conditions; some cloud and showers for western areas, with sunny spells elsewhere,” the latest MetService update said,

The Bay of Plenty was making the most of the sunny start to the summer season, with temperatures expected to top out at 25 today.

On Tuesday a low is expected to develop in the Tasman Sea and move toward the country through Tuesday evening.

This would bring a period of unsettled weather for many regions on Tuesday, Wednesday and into early Thursday, with heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms likely across the North Island.

“That low deepens rapidly and pulls a warm, moist, sub-tropical airmass across the country during Tuesday afternoon and evening,” MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden said.

“It’ll bring widespread rain, strong southwesterly winds and the risk of thunderstorms for many parts of the North Island, including Northland, Auckland and Coromandel.”

While the North Island may be in for the brunt of it, the South Island gets its share of the weather too.

A trough is expected to bring rain through Monday night and Tuesday, followed by cool southwesterlies.

The upper parts of the South Island may also be in for a period of heavier rain on Wednesday associated with the low to the north.

The low gradually moves off to the southeast on Wednesday night, and conditions will ease behind it, before starting to clear through Thursday morning, with many places seeing drier weather and some sunshine return.