Heavy rain and strong winds were due to batter the Bay today and tomorrow.
The sub-tropical low, which is bringing heavy rain and strong winds to much of the North Island, reached Tauranga overnight.
MetService has issued a severe weather watch for the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and other North Island regions as the deep low is expected to bring heavy rain and gales to much of the North Island.
Duty forecaster Stephen Glassey said the warning was put in place because there was a strong possibility the winds would rise to severe gales in exposed places.
"At the moment we're forecasting gusts of up to 110km/h," he said.
Strong winds are set to develop in the Western Bay and will intensify over the coming days. Mr Glassey said the worst of the wind was "definitely still to come" and the strong southeasterly would blow across the region for most of today.
"Looking ahead unfortunately things aren't clearing. [Today] the rain should clear and there will be light rain in the afternoon and evening but tomorrow you can expect rain and at times it will be heavy and more persistent going into the evening. But the system is going through quite quickly so it doesn't look like it's going to last long."
So far, heavier rain had fallen in Northland and parts of Coromandel rather than in the Western Bay of Plenty.
Maximum temperatures were expected to reach 23C today and tomorrow.
"Because it's coming from the sub-tropics, it's quite warm, moist air," Mr Glassey said.
The southeasterly wind is set to ease tomorrow and a northeasterly is forecast to develop.
Weatherwatch analyst Philip Duncan said nationally there would be a second burst of wet and windy weather across the country late on Wednesday and early Thursday but this would clear by Friday.
Swells of up to 4m to 5m and wind gusts of between 40 to 50 knots were expected to batter the Rena and impact on salvage operations this week.