Wintry blast chills South with snow, wind, rain
HEAVY snow fell on western Southland yesterday, bringing an unseasonably wintry reminder for the rest of the South.
The cold front began over Stewart Island early yesterday and moved up the South Island, bringing rain and snow to as low as 200m in places.
Although most areas avoided power outages, strong winds brought a tree down on powerlines near Monowai in western Southland just before 1pm, causing an outage for 35 customers in the rural Jericho and Redcliff area. Five power poles were toppled. Power was restored to the area about 9.30 last night.
Nearby BlackmountRedcliff Rd was closed due to heavy snow, trapping several vehicles on the road and blocking the Lake Monowai turnoff.
State Highway 94 from Te Anau to Milford was closed from Hollyford Rd at 4.34pm yesterday and was expected to remain closed until at least noon today. The NZ Transport Agency has advised a rising avalanche hazard for the road.
In Te Anau, rain turned to snow about 11.30am, causing ‘‘several centimetres’’ to settle in the township.
Snow also fell in Mossburn and Garston.
The Queenstown Lakes Dis trict Council issued a road snow warning for the Crown Range yesterday afternoon. Snow warnings were also in place for the Lindis Pass (SH8) and Porters Pass (SH73) from 8pm yesterday.
Overnight, 2cm to 5cm of snow was expected near the summit of Porters Pass. A warning was lifted yesterday for the Haast Pass (SH6).
Despite touching 19degC on Tuesday, Dunedin recorded 14degC yesterday morning, before dipping to 7degC in the afternoon due to cold winds and rain.
MetService meteorologist Angus Hines said the front had brought unusually cold weather for the time of year.
‘‘It’s pretty cold for the middle of spring, although it’s also well known that the South can be changeable at this time of year, with four seasons in one day.’’
Temperatures today would range from 10degC in Dunedin, Gore and Timaru, to 13degC in Wanaka, and 16degC in Milford.
The front would continue to head north, bringing rain and cold conditions.