Auckland and northern parts of New Zealand are being told to brace for power outages and falling branches ahead of a flurry of gale-force winds this week.
MetService has issued a strong wind watch for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island and northern parts of the Coromandel Peninsula for Tuesday, warning of "southwest winds [that] may approach severe gale in exposed places" between 3am and 4pm.
WeatherWatch says winds will rise to 100km/h in some exposed parts of Auckland and Northland on Tuesday as a westerly ramps up and turns sou'west on Tuesday.
The forecaster says the gusts will be accompanied by a "classic cold front".
"A small area of low pressure over the North Island will act a bit like a roundabout, forcing the winds into a tighter, stronger current over Northland and parts of Auckland for a time," WeatherWatch says.
"The quick surge of winds may see some branches down and isolated power outages. Those that don't have gales are still likely to have a period of blustery conditions - but this event does look fairly short-lived.
"Worst of the winds will be hugging the western coastline of the North Island and spreading into northern areas during the day before easing at night."
Vector told Newshub it had crews ready to respond to any power outages should this be required throughout the night and day.
"At this stage it's hard to predict what tomorrow might look like, but we have our crews ready and on standby to attend any outages if needed," explained Marko Simunac, Vector's head of field services.
"We understand that power outages can be frustrating, and so our team will work as quickly and safely as they can to get the power back up and running if this happens.
"If conditions do worsen, we may need to stand our crews down for safety - please try to be patient if this happens and you are experiencing an outage.
"We encourage Aucklanders to check their devices are charged, and keep a torch handy just in case. For your safety, please stay well away from downed lines and call 111 if you see any."
NIWA Weather says there will also be high winds in the lower North Island.
While the gusts could cause a bit of inconvenience, they will drop off by Tuesday night and NIWA says Wednesday will bring "tranquil weather across New Zealand".
However Thursday and Friday could bring a flurry of rain and potentially thunderstorms, according to forecasters.
