Weather: Freezing temperatures in the south round out first week of winter

Sunday, 7 June 2020

Snow coated cars and houses in Tekapo last weekend.

Winter has served up a chilling reminder that it's settled in for business.

Many in the south woke to freezing temperatures on Sunday morning, thanks to a cold front pushing chilly air up the South Island.

State Highway 8, close to Twizel, was covered in snow.

According to MetService, the coldest place overnight was Tekapo, at a very shivery -6.6 degrees Celsius, closely followed by Pukaki Airport at -5.9C, Alexandra at -4.8C and Christchurch Airport at -3.3C.

And after snow dumps had caused road closures on Saturday, warnings remained in place for the rest of the weekend.

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Black ice was causing problems on some Canterbury roads, with one driver having a lucky escape after skidding off a bridge into a river.

State Highway 73 between Springfield and Otira was closed for a time on Sunday morning. Snow showers were expected in the morning on Milford Rd, Crown Range Rd, Haast Pass and Lindis Pass, with the latter to potentially see 1cm of snow settle near the summit.

Arthur's Pass was expected to see snow showers from late Sunday morning, and Lewis Pass in the afternoon.

Snow down to 800m is forecast for Fiordland, Southland and Clutha, and down to 900m by evening.

The wintry blast followed a similarly cold Friday night, as the first week of winter rounded out with a bang.

However, despite the sudden cold snap, MetService meteorologist Andy Best noted it was nothing too out of the ordinary for this time of year.

'The only places cooler than normal are Christchurch and Kaikoura, they're about three to four degrees lower,' he said.

Christchurch was forecast to hit a high of 12C on Sunday, before getting down to -2C, with Best saying frosts were also expected around much of the South Island, and possibly just Masterton in the north.

With the weather 'just stagnating over the South Island', Best said North Islanders wouldn't be in for a chilly blast themselves. Their temperatures for Sunday hovered in the mid-teens.

Aside from hail in Westland, Sunday would be mainly fine around the country, with just the odd shower around.

The outlook for Monday was much the same, Best said, aside from cloudy periods and scattered showers about western areas, all the way from Auckland to Fiordland, along with the Southland coast.