Snow ‘brilliant’ for spring skiing
This week’s weather bomb is a ‘‘brilliant’’ start to the school holidays for Kiwi skiers, skifield operators say.
So much snow fell in Queenstown, one man yesterday stepped out of his house, jumped on his snowboard and headed into town. The snow came from a ‘‘weather bomb’’ or ‘‘bomb cyclone’’.
This type of storm occurs when low pressure strengthens at a pace of 24 hectopascals (hPa) in
24 hours, according to Niwa (National Institute for Water & Atmospheric Research). Hectopascals is the unit used to measure the range of air pressures that occur naturally in the atmosphere.
Cardrona general manager Bridget Legnasky said about 40 centimetres of snow fell at the field, near Wa¯naka, yesterday and more might be coming. ‘‘It is absolutely brilliant. We could not think of anything better.’’
The weather was forecast to improve from tomorrow and there would be some great spring skiing, she said.
Cardrona and the nearby Remarkables ski area were closed yesterday due to the large snow dump and high winds.
Canterbury’s Mt Hutt ski area manager James McKenzie said the mountain had about 10cm of fresh snow by yesterday. There would be ‘‘pretty good’’ skiing from today lunchtime through to Friday, with some more ‘‘scratchy’’ weather moving in at the weekend.
The Tu¯roa and Whakapapa ski areas in the North Island were closed yesterday due to gale force winds, heavy rain and storm damage to the snow pack.
Snow fell around Queenstown overnight but did not settle in lowlying areas due to the warm ground temperature, according to a Queenstown Lakes District Council report.
Queenstown man Tom Woodward, who lives in the elevated suburb of Fernhill, said people were cheering as he snowboarded past buses and stuck cars this morning.
Woodward had planned to head up to The Remarkables ski area to take advantage of the fresh powder but when he saw it was closed, he had to adjust his plans.
The runway at Queenstown Airport was being cleared yesterday morning and flights had been cancelled until further notice.
North Island National MPs Mark Mitchell and Tim van de Molan spent an unusually snowy morning trapped in Queenstown.
Mitchell’s morning flight was cancelled and van de Molan was waiting to hear if his afternoon flight would depart Queenstown as the snow started to abate.
Van de Molan and Southland National candidate Joseph Mooney spent part of the morning pushing cars stuck on the road near Arrowtown.
The Crown Range between Queenstown and Wa¯naka was closed overnight but reopened yesterday after being ploughed.
However, another 10cm of snow was expected on the road during the day so all cars needed chains.
Traffic over the major alpine passes was also disrupted by snow.
In Auckland, the NZ Transport Agency urged motorists to take care when travelling over the damaged Harbour Bridge yesterday and today with wind gusts of 80kmh forecast.
Met Service meteorologist Karl Loots said Wellington and the Wairarapa region would be hit with northwest gales yesterday afternoon, and a period of heavy rain was expected.
Waves up to 4 metres in height were expected this evening,
eventually easing to 3.5m tomorrow before easing even further later in the week.
There was also a heavy snow warning for the Buller and Nelson regions for last night and today.
Strong wind warnings were in place for Canterbury, the West Coast and Nelson.
The stormy weather would continue into today in the North Island. Snow falls would continue in the South Island with snow levels as low as 200m, particularly in Southland.