A belt of warm weather is on the way for the weekend, but it's going to come with some wild winds for some in the South.
An unseasonal "summer blast" has been forecast to hit the southern regions for the first day of meteorological winter (June 1), bringing temperatures in the high teens or maybe even 20degC.
However, MetService has today issued severe weather warnings for the South, comprising a heavy rain watch for Fiordland and strong wind watches for parts of Southland and Otago.
The forecaster said in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago, northwest winds could reach severe gale from 1am to 4pm on Saturday. For western Southland and Stewart Island, the period was from 10pm on Friday to 9am on Saturday.
MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan earlier said it was "that classic foehn wind set-up where northwest winds travel over the Southern Alps, bringing warmer and drier air down the eastern side of the mountains, and that’s what’s going to be cranking those temperatures up into the high teens for Otago".
He said the "unusual" temperatures were expected to peak on Saturday morning, before the northwesterlies turned more southwesterly, bringing some rain.
