A powerful anti-cyclone is expected to "dominate" New Zealand's weather this week with warm, windy weather on the way.
An anti-cyclone is a large-scale circulation of winds flowing counter-clockwise around a central region of high atmospheric pressure.
WeatherWatch said the anti-cyclone would be in the east of New Zealand and is expected to grow in size over the coming days. This, coupled with a low in the Tasman Sea and lows in the tropics, will help produce a warmer-than-average week next week for all of the country.
WeatherWatch also said windy nor'easters will hit some regions in the north of the country.
The anti-cyclone will be New Zealand's main weather feature for the next week and is working in tandem with Cyclone Ilsa, a powerful tropical cyclone hitting Western Australia which has broken records with speeds reaching 218 km/h. Cyclone Ilsa is not expected to affect New Zealand at all.
"That creates what we call a squash zone and those north-east winds will become stronger in the days ahead, and as the high gets stronger and moves a little bit further out to our east it will pull down this subtropical airflow and bring it down to New Zealand," WeatherWatch head weather analyst Philip Duncan said.
MetService meteorologist Andrew James told Newshub the country will see settled weather this weekend.
There is a high pressure over the country through the weekend and into the early part of next week. However, a front starts moving up the South Island that will bring rain to Fiordland at the end of the day.
"We are looking at a bit of a calming down period over the next couple of days after quite a few pretty active days over the last week," James said.
Here's MetService's extended forecast:
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with showers about Northland and Coromandel Peninsula, and isolated showers for Auckland and Gisborne. Mainly fine for the rest of the country.
Monday
North Island: Mostly cloudy with showers about Northland and Coromandel Peninsula, spreading to Bay of Plenty later. Isolated showers for Auckland, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay. Fine elsewhere. South Island: Rain developing about Fiordland, spreading to Westland later in the day and with scattered falls reaching Southland and Otago. Mainly fine with increasing high cloud elsewhere.
Tuesday
North Island: Rain spreading across the upper half of the island, possibly heavy about Northland. Partly cloudy in the south. South Island: Rain developing for most regions, possibly heavy in the west. Remaining dry and partly cloudy in the northeast.
Chatham Islands
Cloudy periods, but longer fine breaks by Tuesday. Southerlies dying out late Sunday, northerlies developing from late Monday.
