A tropical cyclone has formed near the Solomon Islands and experts aren't ruling out it reaching Category 5 strength.
On Tuesday evening, the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia named the tropical cyclone Jasper and classed it as a Category 1 strength over the Solomon Sea, near the Solomon Islands.
Jasper is expected to reach at least a Severe Category 4 storm on Friday and experts aren't ruling out it reaching Category 5.
MetService meteorologist John Law told Newshub on Wednesday Jasper is still forecast to not impact New Zealand.
"As Tropical Cyclone Jasper is set to continue on its journey down towards the south, intensifying as it does so over the Coral Sea. The current forecast is for the system to reach a Category 4 Tropical Cyclone as we head through to the end of the week, so for Friday," he said.
"At the moment, it still looks to be staying way, away to the east from us in New Zealand, obviously we're keeping an eye out for it and keeping a watch for our Australian colleagues and friends over on that side of the Tasman Sea. The risk for us seems to be minimal as the system continues to move out towards the West."
Jasper is the third tropical cyclone of the season, which started on November 1. It comes after Tropical Cyclone Mal barrelled past Fiji in November, and Tropical Cyclone Lola smashed into Vanuatu in October.
Meanwhile, after two days of unsettled weather for the parts of the North Island that saw the "rare" red severe thunderstorm warning issued for parts of Northland, MetService is predicting a more settled day of weather.
But it's not all good news with Law telling Newshub some areas are still going to get some heavy showers on Wednesday.
"We are still going to find the chance of perhaps some heavier showers as we head through this afternoon through, say, for the Bay of Plenty even perhaps up into that eastern side more than anything else, up towards the Raukūmara kind of area," he said.
"I think we're generally looking at things being a bit quieter in that sense. So we haven't got any watches or winds out for the weather for today."
The bad weather is then expected to move south on Thursday with some heavy showers expected.
"What we'll be watching out for is a front moving out from the south, bringing some heavier rainfall back towards that western coast of the South Island and some of that could be very heavy at times," he said.
