Sun stays away for rest of weekend

As the long weekend wears on, Kiwis aren't being given much of a reprieve from the decidedly average weather gracing most of the country.

High cloud and rain - which will become heavy in some places tomorrow - have marred the weekend so far, and the worst is yet to come for some areas, including the Coromandel, a holiday hot spot.

MetService is even considering whether weather watches and warnings need to be put in place for parts of the country due to high rain forecast for tomorrow.

"What's happening at the moment is we've got westerly winds over the country and within that there are a couple of fronts," said meteorologist Brian Mercer.

"Over the North Island from Taranaki northwards there's rain today.

"Nothing too heavy but it's going to be overcast."

By evening, the front would ease to showers in Auckland and the Waikato, the wet hitting Northland a little earlier.

Wellington should miss the showers and further up the coast in the Wairarapa the day was shaping up to be a fine one as well, Mercer said.

It would be the same story through Nelson and Marlborough, and further south Canterbury and North Otago people could expect cloud to clear off by afternoon before returning in the evening.

"To the west of the South Island we've got periods of rain and it's going to be off and on rain all day," Mercer said.

Tomorrow a low pressure system would be moving over the upper North Island.

"That's going to bring significant amount of rain for the North Island."

Auckland, Northland, the Coromandel and Waikato were in store for some heavy rain and Mercer said it was possible MetService could be issuing some watches and warnings later today.

"That burst of heavy rain should move off the country late tomorrow evening except for eastern areas like Gisborne where it will linger until tomorrow morning," he said.

In the South Island tomorrow, "it's probably not going to be the most pleasant either to be honest.

"It's going to be relatively cloudy... and we are going to get burst of showers toward the East Coast."

The West Coast will stay overcast with rain.

Bucking the trend was usually windy Wellington, which was forecast for fine weather tomorrow.

"Wellington should have quite a nice day tomorrow," Mercer said.

It was the same with the Wairarapa - some cloud was forecast for the morning in both areas and there could be a little bit of rain up the coast later but in general it should be "generally quite nice", Mercer said.

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