Most of the country is in for a showery windy Monday, with a colder spell on the way that could possibly bring snow to the Desert Road on Tuesday.

MetService had issued several wind or rain warnings for overnight Sunday.

By 5am Monday they were mostly "on their last legs" but there was still a rain warning for the Tararua Range during Monday, says MetService meteorologist Karl Loots.

Rain could still he heavy in the eastern ranges of Bay of Plenty, the ranges of Gisborne, and the central North Island high country. Gales were also possible throughout the North Island on Monday.

"Embedded in this flow we're seeing showers and isolated thunder showers. That's going to be the story for much of the day."

Overnight some heavier showers had fallen on the West Coast, and in the Nelson region. A thunderstorm moved through New Plymouth, and there were one or two rattles of thunder around Wellington.

A cold front would be moving over the South Island during Monday: "That's going to bring much colder conditions there, and a colder southwest change and snow lowering to 600 metres," Loots said.

Into the following day, that southwest flow spreads over the whole country. We're going to see cooler conditions for the whole country going into Tuesday."

For Tuesday, MetService is forecasting snow to lower to 1000 metres in the North Island, while on Wednesday it could lower to 200m in the south of the South Island.

On Monday, Auckland is expected to have some heavy showers, with a possibility of gale westerlies in exposed places and a high of 16 degrees Celsius.

Wellington, which had almost 50mm of rain on Sunday, is expected to get to just 12C, with heavy and possibly thundery showers, and gale northerlies easing. Christchurch is expected to stay dry during the day, with a high of 13C and strong northerlies.

The wet and windy weather on Monday morning, follows a wet weekend, which had flooding and a handful of road closures.

- Stuff