Wet weather weekend set to blast Bay

Make the most of the good weather, with rain to soak Hawke's Bay, and temperatures to drop over the weekend. Photo / Duncan Brown

With brown patches of grass becoming a more common sight as summer draws near, a wet weekend for Hawke's Bay is a welcome respite.

Metservice meteorologist Tui McInnes said this weekend the East Coast was set to "cop the worst" of a low pressure system moving down from the north.

"Unfortunately looks like it could be a bit of a wet weekend for Hawke's Bay," he said.

This could depend on how the system moved - yesterday it appeared Napier would have rain and showers, but the most rain would fall around the Wairoa district.

However, the system could dramatically change. If it moved south the wet weather could hit urban, and southern Hawke's Bay with only showers in Wairoa.

Currently Metservice were predicting showers today, spreading north from late morning and cloud increasing, with a high of 18C.

By Saturday rain would be setting in during the morning, with heavy falls possible in the north. South easterlies were forecast, strengthening in exposed places.

Sunday could bring heavy falls around Wairoa, but easing to a few showers in the afternoon. Some fresh, or strong southerlies would also ease. The weekend's high would be 16C.

Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president Will Foley said a rainy weekend would be good news for farmers.

"It's a good time to get the rain, and the grass will respond and keep growing. I'd say that would be very welcome if there is a lot of rain coming."

Although there were signs of things starting to dry out, Mr Foley said this was not a concern yet.

"Most farmers are saying it's been a good spring, and there's been relatively good moisture in the soil and then you get a nice warm day, so we're getting good grass growth and stock are doing really well."

The beginning of next week was expected to be "quite nice", Mr McInnes said, despite a wet start on Monday, when a few showers were expected about the coast.

The rain could be gone by Tuesday, which would be partly cloudy, with temperatures rising back up to 18C.