A burst of severe weather moved across the country on Thursday, bringing over 160 lightning strikes to eastern parts of the North Island.

MetService says 88 strikes hit Bay of Plenty, while eastern Waikato saw 50. Further inland, only light snow fell on the Desert Road and did not settle, alleviating fears it might impact motorists.

The country should get a brief reprieve on Friday before more severe weather hits both islands over the weekend, and MetService urged Kiwis to keep an eye on the forecast.

"This will be a significant wind and rain event, contrasting greatly with the calmer weather experienced over the past few weeks," says MetService meteorologist Tui McInness.

"Wind will be the dominant element of this weekend's weather, while the wet weather does affect much of the country. The strong winds are what provide the greatest and most widespread risk."

Strong winds are set to spread north across the country, and become severe across inland South Island and the lower North Island from late Friday into Saturday. Heavy rain is also expected for western South Island, with wet conditions also expected further north.

AUCKLAND BATTERED

Earlier, strong winds battered Auckland and kept emergency services busy into Thursday evening.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman says crews had attended 19 weather-related incidents in Auckland by about 6pm.

Over the next two hours, Fire and Emergency NZ attended a dozen more weather-related incidents across Auckland, the spokesman said.

Energy provider Vector's communications manager Elissa Downey says there were "10 pockets across Auckland currently experiencing outages, the majority of these are due to the high winds".

"The affected cables are being progressively restored and we're aiming to have power up and running again as soon as possible."

Wind speeds could gust up to 100 kmh in Auckland on Thursday evening, says MetService meteorologist Andy Downs.

Downs said the strongest wind they observed in Auckland area was 90kmh at the Harbour Bridge at 5pm and 96kmh in Whangaparaoa at 4pm.

"We're expecting some strong wind this afternoon and evening, with gusts up to 100kmh in exposed places.

"It's pretty strong, but not enough for us to issue a warning, but it can still cause problems if things, for example, trampolines are not secured."

Fire and Emergency NZ's spokesman says they were first called to a weather-related incident at 8.30am and it had mainly been called to cases where trees and power lines had fallen down.

A police spokeswoman says police had received reports about fencing and timber blowing from construction sites onto the road in Takapuna and Ōtāhuhu.

There were also reports of trees blocking roads in central suburbs such as Kohimarama, Epsom, Mt Roskill as well as Clendon Park, Kumeu, Waitoki, Pukekohe and the northwestern motorway, she said.

Police had also been told about a power cut in Avondale, she said.

"People should take care when driving because there could be debris and other items on the roads," the spokeswoman says.

A large concrete slab on a construction site collapsed in West Auckland earlier this afternoon, which might be associated with the strong wind, according to a witness.

Downs said the wind would ease on Thursday tonight. Strong winds were expected in south and central New Zealand this weekend, but not in Auckland.

Tui McInnes, another meteorologist at MetService says the stronger wind developed around 8-9am in Auckland, and the peak strength was between 2-4pm.

He suggested people to "keep updated with the latest information, and make sure you're aware of what's going on".

Vector has received advice about the strong wind from MetService earlier and was preparing to respond to any power outages caused by the winds.

Vector Chief Networks Officer Andre Botha says they were monitoring the situation closely and would respond as quickly as possible should incidents occur.

"We know losing power is a big inconvenience but we'd like to reassure people that we have crews on standby ready to respond.

"If there is damage to power lines we may need to de-energise electricity circuits to carry out repairs safety."

Botha says they appreciated people's understanding and patience if damage occurred, and reminded people to stay away from damaged electrical equipment and report issues to them.

-Stuff/Liu Chen