The upper North Island may experience surface flooding and slips due to heavy rain today, warns MetService.

The meteorological service has issued a number of severe watches and warnings for parts of the North Island, some upgraded since yesterday.

Northland and Auckland have been issued a severe thunderstorm watch from 9am to 7pm today.

"Some of these thunderstorms may be severe, producing localised downpours of 25 to 40 mm/h," MetService said.

Heavy rain warnings are also in place for Northland, Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty west of Whakatāne and Mount Taranaki.

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Northland is expected to get 50 to 70mm of rain between 9am and 5pm today, whereas Auckland will have between 50 and 80mm of rain from 9am to 10pm today.

Coromandel and Bay of Plenty have warnings in place from Friday morning until 12pm tomorrow in Coromandel and 7pm tomorrow in Bay of Plenty - with MetService expecting around 70 to 100mm of rain for both areas and more in the ranges.

Mount Taranaki's warning is in place from 1pm today to 10am tomorrow, with 180 to 230mm of rain expected.

And heavy rain watches are in place for Bay of Plenty from Whakatane eastwards and Gisborne north of Ruatoria from 3am to 9pm tomorrow, Tongariro National Park from 3pm today to 6pm tomorrow, and Wairarapa including the Tararua District from 6pm today to 9pm tomorrow.

Auckland also has a strong wind watch, which "may approach severe gale in exposed places" until 9pm tonight.

Waka Kotahi warned yesterday that traffic on Auckland's Harbour Bridge may be affected by the strong winds, with a "red alert" possible this afternoon as it picks up - although this has not yet happened.

Got any good photos or videos of the wild weather? Send them in to news@tvnz.co.nz