Glorious weather about to come to a sharp, sudden stop as NZ prepares for battering

Rain, winds, king tides and even a bit of snow are in the forecast.

The record-breaking summer of scorching sun and searing heat is about to come to an abrupt end.

Cyclone Oma may not be heading our way as some early models predicted, but it doesn't mean we escape wind, rain and perhaps a bit of snow.

MetService forecaster Lisa Murray says the cyclone will still be affecting our weather.

"It is gifting us plenty of warm, moist air for the top of the country and we have a low coming up from the Tasman Sea bringing up really cold air - and as these two interact we're going to get quite a dynamic system across the country, so quite a lot of places getting wind and rain," she said.

The severe weather watches are already out covering areas like Northland, northern parts of the Auckland region and parts of Westland and Fiordland.

And the weeks of relentless sun have made the ground like concrete.

"A lot of places are extremely dry so anywhere that's going to get extremely heavy rain you might get some run off rather than the soil soaking it up, and that can have a big impact there as well," Ms Murray told 1 NEWS.

1 NEWS headed out to the opening of the Splore festival near Auckland today as revellers got ready for what could be a wet weekend.

But they weren't fazed.

"No stress man, no stress," a man in one car told us.

"She'll be right, a little bit of hope and she'll be all good," said another.

The festival's marketing manager said all contingency plans were in place for rain, but they aren't expecting huge amounts.

"It's been a bit hairy with the cyclone coming so we are tracking the weather constantly in six-hour blocks... We could get a little bit of rain but what's a bit of rain in a festival?" Suzanne McNamara said to 1 NEWS.

"It's all about the attitude people bring that matters," she said.

And revellers agreed, with others also telling our reporter rain wasn't going to get in the way of them having a good time with the almost 8500 people there.

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