Farmers are bracing themselves for the brunt of the bad weather that's heading north.

The Metservice is expecting snow as low as 700 metres from Hawke's Bay to Wellington and Wairarapa.

The Desert Road and Napier-Taupo Road are likely to be affected by snow from this morning through to tomorrow.

Other areas are also in line for heavy rain and severe gales.

Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Will Foley said farmers should be well prepared.

"Try to get stock down to low altitude on the farms, stock up on supplies, ensure cellphones are charged up and if farmers need electricity, or are depending on it make sure their generators are working."

Foley said they will be watching areas such as Te Pohue and farms on the Napier-Taupo Road because they can't afford to have another bad winter.

"We are just hoping for not a repeat of the severity of the storm last year which had a lot of farms under snow for three months which was quite a disaster for those farms."