Storm coming for Hawke's Bay: Strong winds, heavy rain, and a snow warning

The stormy winds are coming, and they're going to have a bite to them.

A strong wind watch is in place for Hawke's Bay from Mahia down to Dannevirke, with a heavy rain watch also in place for parts of Tararua District.

MetService on Monday issued a road snowfall warning for State Highway 5, the Napier-Taupō Rd, from 5am through until 3pm on Tuesday.

Showers may turn to snow at the summit of the road for a time with 1 or 2 centimetres of snow possibly settling on the road near the summit.

MetService meteorologist Peter Little said the stormy conditions and strong winds were being driven by a low pressure of the east coast which was expected to deepen later today

"It's mostly going to affect coastal areas."

Winds would be strongest on Tuesday with the watch in effect from 1pm until 11pm, he said.

West to southwest winds may approach severe gale in exposed places during this time, reaching estimated speeds of between 90 km/h to 100 km/h.

The watch applies to Hawke's Bay areas south of Napier down to Tararua District, as well as the Mahia Peninsula and Wharerata Range, which comes into effect from 7pm Tuesday until 1am Wednesday.

MetService has issued a wind watch for Hawke's Bay, including Mahia, from 1pm through until about 11pm on Tuesday. Photo / MetService

Little said temperatures would drop as the winds eased overnight on Tuesday with lows of 1C expected in Hastings and 3C in Napier.

"It could be frosty which will be interesting for the growers.

"It's a chilly start to the week but things do warm up a lot later in the week."

He said while Tuesday would only see highs of between 12-14C across the region, by Wednesday these would increase to 18-19C.

A heavy rain watch is also in place for parts of Tararua District until Monday evening, though Little said it didn't look like rain will affect much of Hawke's Bay.

As at 10am today, Napier had received 3 millimetres of rain and Hastings about 2.6mm.

"There hasn't been a lot of rain at all."

In the next 48 hours, some places could get 50mm which Little thought would be "welcome news" to many in the region - most of this rainfall will be south of Cape Kidnappers towards Central Hawke's Bay.