Heavy rain, thunderstorms, hail and "plenty of sun" are all on the cards this weekend, according to MetService.
Yesterday, watches and warnings were issued as a slow-moving front moved north, as parts of the country recorded heavy rain and strong winds.
MetService meteorologist Heather Keats told Breakfast the unsettled spring weather brought rain, hail and thunderstorms.
"There were a lot of thunderstorms last night, and Auckland City did get a few of them. Although most of them were offshore, but there were about 588 lightning strikes over New Zealand in the last 12 hours," she said.
Keats said it had also been very wet, with Wellington recording 20mm to 40mm in the 12 hours to 5am.
"So that is quite some decent rain and heavy rain as well. Bit of a southerly storm blew through the Cook Strait, so that was a bit of fun too. But look, it is starting to clear, which is very good news," she said.
Keats said "thunderstorms are still a risk for today".
"Most of those thunderstorms overnight clear out with sunrise, so that's all good. But there is going to be a risk later this morning for the east coast of the North Island, which is going to get the bulk of the rain over the weekend too.
"Then this afternoon and tonight for the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island, some of those thunderstorms will have some small hail too, which is not great for the seedlings that you've just planted," she laughed.
Looking forward to the rest of the weekend, Keats said things were "looking much, much better", but temperatures would remain low for most and some could even experience frost.
"We've got rid of high pressure, and then actually a big high pressure system next week that kind of moves over us. So that's really good news. However, it is freezing."
She said Wellington would reach a high of 9C today, Gisborne would hit 12C and Hastings - which nearly hit 30C earlier this week - would reach just 11C today.
"There is some frost on the cards too this weekend, but tomorrow [Saturday] much better, plenty of sun out once that cloud clears. We've still got that feed flow from the southerly of rain coming into the eastern parts of the North Island. So not great for Hawke's Bay, not great for Gisborne."
"It does shift again later in the weekend. Wanaka back to 24C. Dunedin back to 20C. Next week's looking a little bit warmer, but we're only halfway through spring. Things are going to be like that for a little while longer," she explained.
She said Sunday was shaping up to be "a fantastic day around the country".
Two remaining road snowfall warnings for Lewis Pass (SH7) and Porters Pass (SH73) would expire by 11am today.
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