Weather warnings: Strong winds likely to hamper Wednesday's Prada Cup action

The clouds will slowly darken today before heavy rain and gales hit the North Island early Monday. Photo / 123rf

Heavy rain and gale force winds are set to smash the Upper North Island and while the rain will ease, the wind is likely to affect Wednesday's racing of the Prada Cup final.

MetService meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree says the "turbulent" weather is about to hit New Zealand, with weather warnings already in place for Northland, Auckland and Coromandel.

The rain will be a welcome relief to many areas including Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne who along with most parts of the North Island have been experiencing a dry summer.

However, for the thousands interested in the racing on the Hauraki Gulf, Crabtree said while the rain was expected to stop, the wind could prove tricky.

"It looks like the worst of the rain during tomorrow and Tuesday with tomorrow being the worst of the wind.

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"By Wednesday we shift to a southeasterly which will be pretty gusty.

"It will be quite a strong southeasterly during the morning and that will gradually ease away towards the latter part of the day but for a lot of the day it's looking like it's a 25 knot southeasterly."

"As it starts off the day, it will be very, very windy, quite strong. There will be some rain at the start of the day but that should clear up and the weather itself should be relatively dry."

Crabtree said Monday would be "quite awful" for Auckland and Northland.

"It's a low system and it mainly hangs around the Upper North Island for Monday, Tuesday, so rain and windy conditions for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, and quite wet for Waikato down towards Taranaki and central areas, although it might be slightly less windy."

Gisborne and Hawke's Bay would start to get quite wet on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"The lower North Island will be wet and windy but less rain and more rain, that's the worry there."

Temperature wise, although the humidity would remain it wouldn't be as noticeable due to the strong winds.

The South Island appeared to sidestep the brunt of the system with just a few showers lingering around southern and eastern areas tomorrow before becoming dry on Tuesday.