Wild weather brings snow, gales
WILD weather across the country is bringing gales, heavy falls, and snow this weekend.
MetService has issued severe weather warnings for gales and heavy rain in parts of the North Island and for snow in the South Island.
Yesterday afternoon strong winds brought down a large pohutukawa tree at Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast.
MetService meteorologist Derek Holland said there was the possibility of thunder, but also snow in the central North Island where Taihape, Hawkes Bay and Lake Taupo could have snow as low as 700 metres.
The cold snap hit Dunedin around midday yesterday and slowly moved up the country, passing through Christchurch at around 5pm.
The central North Island would continue to get gusty winds and heavy swells of up to 5 metres were forecast along the Taranaki coast from Mokau to Opunake last night.
Thunderstorms were expected to move across Whanganui to Kapiti, possibly reaching Wellington and thunderstorms and heavy rain would extend from Nelson down the West Coast.
The wild weather brought warnings about passes through the Southern Alps as more snow falls. And the snow level would be down to 200 metres in the lower South Island where Dunedin, Invercargill, and Queenstown would be lucky to reach a high of 10C during the day.
Today should bring some relief with most parts turning fine by the afternoon.
MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said it was the first time MetService had issued a generic snow warning for 2016. Heavy snow is forecast for Fiordland and Southland into this morning.