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Severe weather warnings are in place for the lower North Island and much of the South Island with damaging 120km/h gales set to hit parts. 

Brighter skies and warmer temperatures are set to give way to storm conditions in coming days as wet weather moves up the country. 

A swathe of wind and rain watches have been issued ahead of a front hitting the South Island tomorrow. 

MetService has put orange heavy rain warnings in place for the ranges of Westland and Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound and the Canterbury High Country and Otago lakes. 

Orange strong wind warnings have been issued for Canterbury High Country and Wellington, while strong rain and wind watches are in place for much of the South Island and lower North Island. 

Severe gale northwesterlies are expected to gust 130 km/h in exposed places. 

MetService warns the potentially damaging gales will start blowing in the capital from 6pm Wednesday and last through the night. It warns the winds are so powerful there is the potential to damage trees, powerlines and unsecured structures. 

Wairarapa and Tararua District is also captured by the strong wind watch from 8pm Wednesday and lasting for the next 16 hours. 

The worst of the weather is forecast to hit the North Island on Thursday but alerts have been put in place across the country today. 

A strong wind watch is in place for all of Canterbury from 1am to 10pm on Wednesday. Heavy rain watches are also in place across the West Coast of the South Island on Wednesday, as a rain band moves across the island. 

After the main band of rain has passed, showers will linger before clearing by the end of Friday. 

“A decent accumulation of rain” is expected to spill over to central areas with some showers predicted for the east as well, as the band rapidly approaches and moves up the South Island, said MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden. 

MetService is warning those in affected parts of Westland and Otago to watch for rapidly rising streams and rivers. 

A heavy rain watch is in place tomorrow for the ranges of Westland, the headwaters of the Canterbury and Otago lakes and rivers. Photo / MetService 

In the North Island, moderate northwesterlies are forecast to gradually increase in strength tomorrow. 

On Thursday, conditions are expected to worsen as the weather moves into the North Island from the south in the morning. 

Lynden told the Herald that western areas will get the worst of it, with rain and some reasonably strong winds predicted. 

“The likes of the Kapiti Coast, the Tararua Ranges there, as well as the Taranaki area [are] very exposed. 

“We don’t have any watches or warnings in place yet for that, but certainly there’s potential for them to be issued in the coming days.” 

Most North Islanders will “at the very least” get some rain on Thursday as it’s quite a broad weather system, said Lynden. 

The front will weaken as it moves north, so the upper half of the island won’t be affected as badly, he said. 

Intense winds across the country last weekend led to a large protest march being diverted from going across Auckland Harbour Bridge, and widespread power outages in the Coromandel and western Bay of Plenty. 

In the area around Whangamatā, 4809 customers were without power on Sunday. 

On Saturday, strong winds closed the Auckland Harbour Bridge. 

Pro-Palestine protesters originally planned to march over the bridge on Saturday, but the idea was scrapped after gusts of up to 70km/h were forecast for the same time they hoped to cross. 

Around 20,000 demonstrators instead marched from Aotea Square to Victoria Park through central Auckland.