South Islanders have woken up to severe frosts this morning, as a cold front moves in and drops temperatures to a low of -8C.

While the top of the North Island gets the rain, the South gets the chill with most regions starting at a low of 0C or colder, according to MetService.

Severe weather watches are in place for parts of Northland and Great Barrier Island, with periods of rain and possible thunderstorms.

This starts this morning and keeps going all the way through till 10pm.

Weather across the country has been severe already in the past few days – with slips in Wellington and large snow dumps in Christchurch.

The temperatures around Northland and the Far North aren't supposed to drop too much, with lows of 8C.

Auckland will have fine weather, and so will Hamilton.

Fine weather is being forecast for Tauranga, with southeasterly winds. A high of 14 degrees is being forecast with an overnight low of 4.

Heading down the country, the weather will be mild, with rain missing most of the central North Island, only hitting Gisborne.

Wellington will start chilly and won't climb out of that most of the day, with a low of 5C and a high of 8C.

Into the South Island – Blenheim starts the day with a low of -2C, with Greymouth getting the slightly warmer start – a sunny 0C.

Alexandra takes the cake with a -8C start, but climbs to 6C with the sun shining all day.

Dunedin and Christchurch are likely to sit around 7C, with next to no clouds.

The rest of the week will bring rain for much of the east coast of New Zealand, while the west looks to stay a lot drier.

-Stuff.