'Spring flip': Second front to bring wet, windy and cooler weather across NZ

The wet and windy weather is set to continue for most of the country as a second front moves up the South Island tomorrow.

MetService meteorologist Maddy Neal said that while the front will bring rain and strong winds, it won’t be as “significant” as what parts of the country saw at the start of the week – a “nice twist” for places like the Canterbury High Country that have been “quite dry”.

“This front moves on to the lower South Island late afternoon into early evening tomorrow for the likes of Southland and then it’s going to move up the South Island overnight into Thursday,” Neal told the Herald.

“And with it we’re going to see rain, and ahead of it, stronger northwesterly winds.”

Neal said the heaviest rain is set to hit the Westland region, while some “stronger gusts” are expected for Gore and Invercargill.

“Just a bit of a wet overnight for the lower South Island and then into Thursday for the likes of Canterbury and Marlborough.”

She said the front will likely reach the lower North Island about midday on Thursday, preceded by a “showery flow” from Wellington and Wairarapa to Auckland.

“They’re likely to see showers throughout Wednesday and then over into Thursday as well.”

Temperatures are also set to be “noticeably cooler” after some “really warm” weather over the weekend.

“We’ve had a bit of a spring flip this week, a bit of a showery flow. And especially with that front that we saw move up at the start of the week, that was quite a change.”

Sheltered areas on the east coast of the North Island will still see some warm temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday, but not nearly hitting the highs of 29C seen in places like Hastings last week.

Today Wellington was in clean-up mode after gales buffeted the city overnight cancelling flights, downing trees, cutting power to over 100 homes and closing roads.

MetService said the strongest wind gust of 148km/h was recorded on Mt Kaukau at 5am.

About 40 flights were cancelled or diverted from Wellington Airport yesterday, with wind gusts peaking at 113km/h around 4am.