Snow falls in the south
Just when winter appeared to be heading out the door it ducked back in to dump snow on Central Otago.
The threat of avalanches closed State Highway 96 between Te Anau and Milford Sound. while the Lindis Pass in Otago closed for a time yesterday.
Parts of Queenstown Lakes, including Queenstown, Arrowtown and Glenorchy were without power after heavy snow and snow-laden tree branches caused problems.
Many flights in and out of Queenstown were cancelled and the New Zealand Avalanche Advisory said conditions were ‘‘very dangerous’’ in parts of the South Island.
All schools in Queenstown and Arrowtown were closed yesterday.
Tui McInnes from MetService said 11cm of snow was recorded south of Kingston, while 4cm was recorded in St Bathans though it continued to snow there last night.
There were no readings from Queenstown but the airport was looking ‘‘very white’’ while Wanaka got a dusting.
The snow was caused by a moist front coming from across the Tasman Sea. A cold southerly slipped in under that.
Usually rain fell still frozen but melted on its trip down. But because it passed through the cold southerly system it could not melt and landed as snow. ‘‘It’s kind of like the stereotypical Kiwi snow,’’ he said.
The front was sitting over Central Otago last night but was expected to peel off eastwards and rain would ease.
MetService was expecting a more summery change today with Queenstown and Wanaka expected to be mainly fine with some cloud and an 8 to 9 degrees Celsius high.