Windy weather on the cards here at bad weather edge

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne is on alert for possible strong winds forecast from a disturbed westerly flow set to move across New Zealand this week.

Several active fronts are likely to bring heavy rain to western areas, and west to northwest gales to eastern parts, the Southern Alps and large parts of the North Island later.

While no weather warning is in place for Gisborne, the MetService has indicated a moderate confidence of strong wind activity throughout eastern regions of the North Island.

Gales in the lower North Island over the past 48 hours caused trees to be blown over and blackouts to about 650 properties in Wairarapa, while winds of up to 133 kilometres an hour in Wellington led to at least one Days Bay ferry sailing being cancelled and an early closure for the Lux Festival in the city on Sunday night.

Thunderstorm activity moved to the lower North Island, with around 700 lightning strikes counted in the four hours to 5am Monday, mostly in northern Wellington, Kapiti Coast and Taranaki.

On Tuesday, on Thursday, and again on Friday, very active fronts move up the South Island.

On Tuesday, there is high confidence of significant widespread rain in the west and severe northwest gales in the east, and moderate confidence on Thursday and Friday.

As the first front reaches the North Island later on Tuesday, there is low confidence of significant rain in the west, and that continues into Wednesday.

Over Wellington and Wairarapa, there is high confidence of severe northwest gales on both Tuesday and Thursday.

On Thursday and Friday, there is moderate confidence of severe west to northwest gales over a large part of the North Island from Coromandel Peninsula south.

Metservice will issue updates over the coming week.