Wintry weather set to strike again
More wintry weather could be on the way for New Zealand next week, forecasters say.
MetService forecaster Ravi Kandula said the front due this week would clear by the weekend, to be followed by a cold weather ‘‘feature’’ next week.
‘‘It’s more of the same, I’m afraid. This sort of thing does happen every few years.’’
Wellingtonians can expect chilly days ahead as the temperatures look set to remain in single digits today, and as low as 4 degrees Celsius overnight tonight.
An active cold front surged through Wellington last night sweeping gale-force southerlies over the region.
MetService meteorologist Sarah Haddon said a severe weather warning was also in place overnight on the Rimutaka Hill Rd. ‘‘We were expecting about 3 to 5 centimetres to accumulate, but it shouldn’t settle.’’
Along with numerous showers, gale-force southerlies are expected to continue to rip through the capital today.
‘‘They will be quite strong today, but will start easing later tonight - generally everything will be easing by Saturday.’’
Yesterday, a car and truck crashed in ‘‘significant’’ flooding on State Highway 1 north of Tawa shortly before 6am, and flights into the capital were diverted because of strong wind gusts.
Snow showers were expected to affect high parts of the Desert Road overnight, and the rest of the road today.
Meanwhile, already sodden parts of the South Island got a fresh dousing yesterday, with Tekapo at one point cut off.
State Highway 8, between Twizel and Fairlie, reopened after it was closed on either side of Tekapo village yesterday morning because of heavy snow and icy conditions on the road. Snowfall warnings were in place for most southern alpine passes, with some expecting up to 20 centimetres to settle.
‘‘Cold Antarctic air behind the front lowers temperatures considerably around the country, with snow gradually falling to 400 metres in Southland and Otago yesterday, to 300m in Canterbury and to 500m in Marlborough.’’
Up to 50 millimetres of rain was to fall by today, a similar-sized downpour to the one that flooded Christchurch late last week, but MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr said the two events were ‘‘quite different’’.
‘‘Last week’s rain was a broad event right across the Canterbury and Otago region, which dumped a lot of rain in Christchurch as well as the foothills which fed into the rivers,’’ Kerr said. ‘‘Significantly more rain than 50mm fell inland last week.’’
This rainfall would be a shorter event and much of the moisture would be ‘‘locked in as snow’’.