In the pink but rather chilly
There’s a chill in the air and the skies are being painted pink across snowy vistas and bizarre cloud formations.
Bay of Plenty locals spotted some impressive candy-floss cloud formations in the sky as the sun set on Thursday evening.
WeatherWatch.co.nz said fading southerly conditions and cooling temperatures helped produce the formations, known as lenticular clouds. They form when the air is stable and winds blow across hills or mountains from the same direction at different heights.
And further south, Havelock North locals were treated to a stunning sunset with the Ruahine
Ranges bathed in pink hues as the snow caught the fading light.
The icy chill was felt across the North Island yesterday with frosts in the early morning and more expected today from the Bay of Plenty down through the central North Island.
MetService meteorologist Andy Best said clear skies with no cloud cover meant warmth in the ground dissipated out toward space, and the colder ground then chilled the air above, which produce frosts.
Rotorua was down to -1C yesterday while Tauranga got down to 2.2C.
“We’ve had a ridge of high pressure over much of the country, and that’s led to relatively clear skies for much of New Zealand. The clear skies have led to many places with severe frosts in the South Island — temperatures of -5C or below.”
Nationwide, the coldest places yesterday morning were the Nelson alpine village of Saint Arnaud, which hit a chilly -7.7C, and Canterbury’s Pukaki, at -7.6C.
Meanwhile Aucklanders woke up to their coldest morning since June 2018 with air frosts at dawn in the inland valleys. Ardmore was down to -1.1C, Waiuku to -0.2C, and Whenuapai and Henderson Valley dipped to 0.1C. with RNZ