Much of the country is likely to have heavy rain and severe winds today.

Speaking to Breakfast This Morning, NIWA lead scientist Chris Brandolino said most bad weather will only last for a day or so.

“Aucklandans bring umbrellas and be patient, it will be wet, windy and rainy until around 9pm.

“Bay of Plenty, Gisborne Range, you’ll see steady rain persisting late this morning, especially from this afternoon to evening.”

He said rain and strong winds should ease in some areas of the North Island later this morning.

But the South Island forecast is “a multi-day affair” with heavy rain throughout the week, he said.

Brandolino added that May was an unusually warm month but that “all of that is about to change”.

“A big change is coming this weekend, the long weekend as we open our winter books, meteorologically speaking, and it looks like we’re going to have winter-appropriate temperatures as we head into the winter.” on a long weekend.

“So we’re talking high winds, cold temperatures in the South Island, and some of those cold temperatures moving north on Sunday and Monday.”

Brandolino also said most parts of New Zealand got twice as much rain as usual in May.

“And that was before last night’s rain and this morning’s rain were taken into account.

“All in all, over the North Island, Auckland for the next few hours will be quite windy, quite wet, so you’ll have to be patient as this is a slow commute,” he said.