The MetService wind gauge at Whanganui Airport recorded wind gusts exceeding 90km/h on Friday afternoon.
MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan said they're expecting wind gusts around 80km/h to continue for the rest of the day.
"So it is a very blustery day. Wind gusts reaching 90km/h doesn't happen all that often."
The Whanganui Airport rain gauge hadn't recorded any additional rain since 12.30pm, although Corrigan said this didn't mean there hadn't been rain in other parts of Whanganui.
"We've recorded not a huge amount of rain. Only 2.2 millimetres of rain so far today, but it's likely that other places around Whanganui could've seen much more."
More showers were likely to roll in on Friday afternoon and evening.
The rain gauge records every 0.2mm of rain that falls from a bucket that tips when the water reaches a certain level, which in turn automatically records the rainfall.
"The type of rain we're seeing today is shower cells coming from the west," Corrigan said.
"The risk of thunderstorms has diminished since this morning, but we don't want to rule out the possibility."