Jack Frost starts his winter sojourn
The nation shivered yesterday as the first proper cold outbreak of winter arrived, disrupting road and air travel.
The deep south and Central Plateau were hit hardest yesterday – flights from Queenstown Airport were cancelled and two state highways were closed.
By last night, a freezing southerly flow sat over the country, but the worst of the snow had passed.
Flights in and out of Queenstown Airport were delayed and cancelled yesterday morning due to snow on the runway, before resuming at 11.30am.
State Highway 87, from Sutton to Outram, was closed, with snow warnings placed on other roads across the region.
Queenstown woke to 1 degree Celsius yesterday morning, but the coldest part of the country was a spot known as Swampy Summit in the hills of Otago, with -3C.
Dunedinites in some hill suburbs also woke to a light dusting of snow, following a storm overnight, before snow began to fall heavily at 8am.
About 7.5cm of snow fell at Mid Dome in Southland.
In the North Island, snow fell on the hills surrounding Wellington and the Central Plateau.
The Desert Rd was closed, with several vehicles reportedly becoming stuck. Contractors were called in to clear the route and a snow warning remained in place yesterday evening.
‘‘The majority of the significant snow in the South Island has eased away and over the next 24 to 48 hours you’ll just see an improving trend, with the showers easing and the wind easing,’’ MetService meteorologist Sarah Haddon said.
‘‘It does mean there’s going to be clear skies, so we expect very cold temperatures overnight, with some possible severe frosts on Sunday morning.’’
South Islanders could expect clear skies, but freezing temperatures by tonight.
‘‘For the South Island there will still just be a few showers for the far south and kind of around Banks Peninsula. But by the end of the day they should be gone . . . and pretty much the whole of the South Island will be fine.’’
Scattered showers were expected today in Wairarapa, parts of the Wellington region, Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and Manawatu.
‘‘Most of the rest of the North Island should be relatively fine, but again it’s still an improving trend tomorrow. So where there are showers they should slowly be getting less and less and clearing into Monday.’’
We expect very cold temperatures overnight, with some possible severe frosts.
Sarah Haddon
MetService