Rough week of weather set to continue in Hawke's Bay

Hawke's Bay is in for a cloudy weekend followed by a windy week. Photo / Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay's rough week with the weather is set to continue with the rain forecast to stay - and wind on its way.

While the whole North Island is going to be covered by a monstrous rain cloud for most of the weekend, grey skies and scattered showers are set to dampen the spirits of Hawke's Bay.

It's not a wine tour weekend, nor a beach weekend, more like a board game weekend according to MetService meteorologist Angus Hines. "This time the weather is coming in from the northeast so it will be a little bit more sheltered than the wet weather than came in from the east throughout much of the week.

"Temperatures are trending upwards with all the air coming down from the north side of New Zealand, but overall it's going to be a very cloudy weekend for all of Hawke's Bay, particularly starting for Saturday."

Hines said the weather on both Saturday and Sunday was looking particularly cloudy and overcast with a finishing touch of patchy rain.

Luckily for Hawke's Bay, the Bay of Plenty and the Coromandel is bearing the brunt of much of the heavy rain.

"By the time it gets over the top of the ranges it won't be as heavy, but it will still be cloudy and wet."

Weather leading up to Christmas was also looking unpredictable, according to Weather Watch head forecaster Philip Duncan "We're in the middle of a chaotic weather pattern at the moment, which means that everything gets thrown at us from all four directions and we've been seeing that this month.

"We've had long dry spells, huge high pressure systems, more large lows than we've seen in half a year, flooding rains and hotter and dryer than average conditions."

Duncan said there was a mixture of El Nino and La Nina weather patterns throughout the spring months.

"It's been pretty dry and it's been pretty wet, but in saying that it's really good for the economy.

"People selling ice creams have got hot weather, camp grounds have got dry weather for holiday makers, there's enough rain for vegetables and gardens to grown, not to mention lawn mowing services keep busy."