Windy blast for Monday and midweek

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Monday is going to be a windy day for much of the North Island and central New Zealand with gales, possibly severe, roaring in from the north west.

The gales are part of a web of westerlies which have spread across New Zealand off and on this week.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says windiest places will be Wellington to Masterton and into Hastings and Napier.

Blustery winds on the Rimutaka Ranges could top 120km/h, making driving extremely hazardous.

Dangerous gusts, possibly damaging to weak structures, could also affect parts of Wellington and Wairarapa.

The windy conditions, caused by high air pressure north of New Zealand and low air pressure to the south, places the squash zone (the windiest area) directly over the North Island.

While it will ease on Tuesday it will surge up again from the south west on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

WeatherWatch.co.nz expects the government forecaster MetService to issue wind warnings for the lower North Island within the next 24 to 36 hours.

Philip Duncan, head weather analyst at WeatherWatch.co.nz, says the blustery winds have at least one more week to go.

"These strong winds are incredibly typical for November and we expect them to continue right through the coming working week, finally easing next weekend."

Mr Duncan says a large high south of Australia will take the next seven days to drift eastwards over New Zealand, bringing lighter winds and sunnier skies to most places on Election Day or the Sunday afterwards.

"Generally speaking we expect this particular blast to peak on Monday then resurface again from Wednesday to Friday. We then expect it will finally die out for the remaining few days of Spring and for the start of summer on December 1st".

Mostly dry weather is expected to remain over the upper North Island where some farms are already noticing the much drier conditions.

- WeatherWatch.co.nz