Weather: Wet start for Aucklanders, most of South Island under heavy rain watch

A front moving northwards from the bottom of the South Island has put much of the South under heavy rain warnings, watches and strong wind watches.
A front moving northwards from the bottom of the South Island has put much of the South under heavy rain warnings, watches and strong wind watches. Photo credit: Image - Getty Images

Aucklanders woke up to localised heavy rain on Saturday morning and MetService says that could be the case until Sunday. 

MetService metrologist Daniel Corrigan told Newshub as the morning progresses isolated showers will die off. 

"These isolated showers are becoming few and far between as we move through the morning."

Corrigan said for most Aucklanders, Saturday is looking partly cloudy and could reach a high of 25 degrees. 

A front moving northwards from the bottom of the South Island has put much of the South under heavy rain warnings, watches and strong wind watches. 

That front isn't expected to reach the North Island until Sunday morning mostly affecting the lower parts of the North Island. 

"Wellington will get bursts of strong winds and bursts of heavy rain but the front really doesn't make its way too far, it breaks up quite a lot," a MetService metrologist said on Friday. 

MetService expects the system to move quickly and last for a matter of hours instead of days. 

"It will have mostly petered out by the time it reaches Auckland – just resulting in the odd shower in the second half of the day for Tāmaki Makaurau."

For the centre parts of the south, strong wind warnings are in place for Canterbury high country and Queenstown Lakes District from 11pm on Friday. 

The ranges of Westland have been issued with an orange heavy rain warning too from 8am to 6pm on Saturday 19, with 70 to 100mm of rain expected to fall. 

The temperature is expected to turn cooler for parts of the South Island hitting around 14 degrees.