Heavy rain set to return

PHOTO/FILE

Last night's heavy rain and gusty winds look set to return on Saturday so those hoping to make the most of the school holidays should get outside before then.

MetService meteorologist Claire Flynn said Mamaku had wind gusts of 144km/h last night while Rotorua had 63km/h bursts.

"That's very gusty and is common for this time of year," Ms Flynn said.

She said most of yesterday's rainfall was in the evening.

"Rotorua had 10ml of rain in the last 24 hours, half of which fell between 8pm and 10pm Tuesday night.

"That's really persistent, but not exceptionally heavy," she said.

Ms Flynn said tomorrow and Friday would be fine, with a little bit of high cloud, meaning school kids could get outside and enjoy their last few days off.

But she said Friday night would see showers start to settle in.

"It will get worse overnight and be very heavy throughout the day with strong northwesterly winds."

Ms Flynn said the rain would gradually clear on Sunday with the first day back at school currently set to be fine.