Typical May weather approaches

Expect four seasons rolled into one month with frosts, rain and warm weather forecast for the last month of autumn.

May looks set to bring a full range of weather to the Bay says weatherwatch.co.nz.

The website said the country as a whole can expect a full range of weather with a moderate sized storm in the Southern Ocean bringing a windy blast to the nation next weekend - but a calm weekend is coming up first.

WeatherWatch.co.nz said the long range forecast for May might be fairly average overall but there will be a variety of weather.

"May will start off fairly mild, especially this weekend with a northerly wind flow developing," head weather analyst Philip Duncan said.

"We may see a few morning fog patches and coastal clouds too with light winds for most places and northerlies building on Sunday for many areas with plenty of sun about too."

Hawke's Bay is expected to be sunny with some cloud and a high of 16C today - tomorrow is expected to be similar with Sunday becoming cloudy.

By Monday a windy system will move in bringing rain and showers - along with and a few isolated thunderstorms to the west.

However long range models continue to forecast a sizeable Southern Ocean/southern Tasman Sea low that could bring both wind and rain warnings to parts of New Zealand, followed by a much colder south to south west flow around the middle of the month.

"This cold and windy snap around from May 9 to 14 will likely drop temperatures across the country into the third week of May - but a large high may mean frosty, stunning, weather for some too."

Mr Duncan said before the cold change arrived the north to north west flow could help boost temperatures in the north and east.

WeatherWatch.co.nz said Canterbury would also have a chance to dry out, despite a few southerlies in the mix this month.

"We see plenty of nor'westers and much of the rain in May looks to be falling on the west coast rather than the east coast.

"Hopefully a chance for Canterbury to dry out a bit after a wet start to 2014."