Your weekend weather: settled weather turns to wet long weekend

Packing a rain jacket is a must this long Easter weekend despite today's settled weather.

The country is currently sitting under a large high pressure system bringing some cloudy but clear weather.

However, that will start to make way for a front tomorrow.

MetService meteorologist Kyle Lee said the active front is set to move slowly northeast across the South Island over the weekend before hitting the North Island late on Sunday and during Monday.

"The whole of the North Island is going to get wet basically on Sunday and Monday," Lee said.

Taranaki and the eastern Bay of Plenty have a risk of heavy rain when that precipitation sets in.

It's a bit of a "tale of two stories" because as that front moves north the South Island starts to clear again, he said.

A very weak front was expected to follow and by Tuesday the weather could be heading towards a more settled trend again, he said.

According to WeatherWatch the "enormous" high pressure system today is perfectly centred across the country and stretches from Fiji to eastern Australia and all the way down to near Antarctica.

WeatherWatch further predicts a couple of cold nights ahead but warmer than average afternoons for many places inland both today and tomorrow.

Today's weather forecast

Whangarei:

Partly cloudy, chance shower. Southeasterlies. High 20C, Low 14C.

Auckland:
Fine. Easterly breezes. 20C, 10C.

Tauranga:
Fine. Light winds. 20C, 9C.

Hamilton:
A fine day. Southeasterly breezes, dying out in the afternoon. 20C, 5C.

New Plymouth:
A fine day. Southeasterly breezes dying out. 18C, 8C.

Napier:
Cloudy periods. Southerlies dying out. 18C, 8C.

Wellington:
Areas of morning cloud, then fine. Southerly breezes, dying out this evening. 16C, 8C.

Nelson:
Fine with light winds. 17C, 8C.

Christchurch:
Fine, but early frosts, and some morning and evening cloud. Northeast developing afternoon. 15C, 8C.

Dunedin:
Fine, morning and evening cloud. Northeast breezes developing afternoon. 16C, 9C.