A brolly may not help those out and about as heavy rain and strong winds are likely to hit Northland over the weekend.

A yet-to-form low in the tropics is forecast by MetService to move southeast towards Northland tomorrow afternoon or evening, bringing warm and tropical air.

MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said Northland escaped the brunt of a low pressure system situated in the lower South Island yesterday morning, the but region would get rain this weekend from a similar weather pattern likely to form today.

Mr Adams said areas such as Whangarei and the Bay of Islands were likely to receive heavy rain late tomorrow and on Saturday while big swells were likely along Northland's west coast. The heaviest rain is likely to be along the east coast on Saturday.

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"Generally when we get a front it's a broad sweeping thing but low pressure systems, particularly those from the tropics, tend to pack the weather in small areas so some places will get rain and others won't.

"A lot of models are saying this low pressure will track north east of New Zealand whereas others say it'll be further west and that's why we can't say at this stage where precisely it will affect," he said.

As the weather would be mostly cloudy heading into the weekend, daytime temperatures would hover between 17C and 19C, dropping down to around 14C at night. Cloud will increase in the evening today and occasional rain becoming persistent in the afternoon is predicted for tomorrow.

On Saturday southeasterly winds will possibly rise to gale force then ease in the afternoon. Rain will likely ease on Sunday and the weather should start clearing on Monday.