While the wild weather overnight left warm temperatures on Monday, it will be a completely different story on Tuesday.

Severe gales and downpours swept across much of the North Island overnight with other areas like the Kahurangi National Park in west Tasman receiving about 230mm of rain as well.

However, it also brought a very mild start to the week for winter, not dropping below 16 degrees Celsius all night in places like Whangārei.

MetService said there would be scattered showers for parts of the country for the rest of Monday, with Canterbury, Otago and Southland seeing periods of rainy weather.

But MetService meteorologist John Law said Tuesday would be a lot drier for many places and snow was forecast overnight for the lower South Island.

Snowfall warnings have been issued Milford Road with up to 10cm of snow to accumulate about the tunnel and Crown Range Road and Lindis Pass, with up to 3cm of snow expected to accumulate about the summit of the road.

"The combination of wetter weather and cold air brings the ingredients needed to generate some snowfall about the highest parts of the lower South Island tonight," Law said.

"[But] generally an improving night across the top of New Zealand with some clearer skies coming back towards us."

The clearer skies would come with freezing temperatures though, he said.

"Even down below freezing for places like Queenstown, -1C and even up on the North Island, temperatures are a good 3, 4, 5 degrees cooler than we saw first thing on Monday morning."

But Law warned that the end of week would see the return of windy and wet weather across many parts of the country.

Reproduced with permission