Sights like this at Fitzroy beach could carry on well into Autumn.

This time last year saw Mt Taranaki treated to an early dusting of snow but this year the region is the sunniest spot in the country.

As New Zealand's finest place for April - so far - the sun in New Plymouth isn't quite ready to pack up and leave as it usually does with the departure of daylight savings.

New Plymouth was sunny during daylight hours for more than three quarters of March, clocking in a total 263 sunshine hours for the month and 806 hours between January and the end of March.

Andy Jackson/Fairfax NZ Mt Taranaki with its first coating of snow in 2015.

Falling just behind Richmond in Nelson, for the March sunshine hour count, Taranaki is looking at an unseasonably warm autumn.

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* Warm autumn and westerly winds predicted for Taranaki

* Rain develops, likely to be particularly heavy in Nelson, Taranaki, BOP

* Heavy rain to continue on Mt Taranaki throughout the morning

* Thunderstorms, rain and strong winds lash Taranaki

* Heavy rain warned for Mt Taranaki as bad weather moves across country

* Wintry blast dumps snow on North Island's ski fields

Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said a predominance of easterly and northerly winds was the cause of the warm weather.

"There's been lots of wind flow overland from the east and north as opposed to off the water to the west," he said.

"Any direction that has a northerly component to it is going to be a warm wind."

With Taranaki sitting as the only North Island region to feature on Niwa's sunshine hours top four, Noll said Mt Taranaki would unlikely be getting an early dumping of snow like it did last year.

"There won't be snow anytime soon, it's still looking like a mild weather pattern is still in place across the whole country," he said.

Stratford Mountain Club run the Manganui skifield and their Spokesman Rob Needs said it was quite alarming to see snow on North Egmont by April 14 last year.

"But then again out of character is normal for our mountain," he said.

"We were going to hang the T's on the T bar by the end of next week, so in case we do get snow we're prepared."

Needs said Manganui needed between four and six inches of snow before it was skiable.

"An old member of the club said it takes about five snowfalls to make up the depth we need," he said.

"There's also a few adages you can go by; 'snow in May will get washed away' and 'snow in June is still too soon'.

"Our wish list would be to see a good few dumpings in about eight weeks to coincide with the next school holidays."

Despite earning the accolade for New Zealand's sunniest city in April, New Plymouth residents woke to a dreary and wet Friday morning.

MetService have predicted heavy rainfalls for the lower North Island on Saturday night but Wellington, Kapiti and Taranaki were expected to get a taste of what was to come before the main front reached them.

Although rain was predicted for the weekend, MetService said a cool southwest flow would bring the sunshine out again in time for Anzac day on Monday.

Taranaki regional lifeguard supervisor Todd Velvin said despite the warm waters usually having cooled down by easter, a bit of warmth was still clinging around the Taranaki coastline.

"The water is still nice and warm and there's still plenty of people out there enjoying it," he said.

"But normally our summer would have long disappeared by now."