Elijah Bowman, 12, and his brother Ezra, 14, made a snowman out of a "freak hailstorm" that arrived out of sunny skies on Friday at Tomarata. Photo / Supplied
An erratic day for Auckland's weather which saw "freak hailstorms" amid mostly sunny skies, is set to clear for cool fine conditions over the weekend.
Both today and tomorrow in Auckland will have clear skies and chilly mornings that warm through the day.
Saturday will have a high of 14C and a low of 6C.
Sunday will have a high of 15C and a low of 10C.
The sunny weather in the City of Sails will continue through to Tuesday when a band of rain that has moved up the country from Southland finally hits Auckland.
"The showers clear out tonight and then fine tomorrow, and mostly fine on Sunday and Monday, just a bit of cloud about," MetService forecaster Paul Ngamanu said yesterday.
"The rain that comes into the far South on Sunday, it makes its way northwards, so Auckland's probably looking at rain by Tuesday when isolated showers turn to rain later in the day."
The chilly mornings will continue due to a ridge of high pressure hovering over the city.
Yesterday, Auckland just had a few showers scattered about, some of which were heavy with hail.
One such area was Tomarata in the north of the Auckland region, which saw an abrupt hailstorm around 2pm yesterday.
The Bowman family were among those strolling dirt roads coloured white with hail, but beneath sunny skies after they experienced what mum Allira called a "freak hailstorm".
"It was just such a random thing to happen," Allira said.
"I was just sitting on the deck, you know enjoying the sun, and then we heard these claps of thunder and it went dark. Within five minutes it just hailed like crazy.
"It's still all over the deck because it was so thick that it hasn't melted away. Even though it was sunny afterwards.
"My kids built a snowman out of it and everything."
The rest of the North Island can expect a largely clear weekend, with Wellington avoiding rain with a high of 12C on Saturday and 14C on Sunday.
Whangarei will be sunny with a high of 14C on Saturday and 16C on Sunday.
Hamilton will have a high of 15C on Saturday and Sunday with fine conditions.
Tauranga will be sunny with a high of 16C on Saturday and 17C on Sunday.
Down south will also largely be clear skies but it will get chilly with Christchurch experiencing a low of 1C on Saturday and a high of 13C.
Dunedin will be fine with a high of 15C on Saturday and 17C on Sunday.
Most other cities in the South Island will experience clear cold skies, before a rain band hits Fiordland on Sunday evening.
Customers across the country began reporting problems about 7.30pm.