After a relatively warm start to the week for many, thanks to warmer subtropical air, a colder southerly flow will soon make its presence felt and the weekend will see a return to winter.
The warm and blustery northwest flow over much of New Zealand is bringing heavy rain to northern and western provinces today and much of tomorrow before a colder south to southwest flow moves in. "Bouts of heavy rain in the north and west, and severe gales in the east, will be replaced by squally showers and cold southerlies," commented Metservice Meteorologist Tom Adams. There are currently a number of warnings and watches in place for severe weather and these can be found on metservice.com.
"We already have warnings in force for snow about the South Island's higher roads, but as the cold starts to gain ground, snow is forecast to lower levels for much of South Island this weekend," said Adams. "There is still uncertainty around how low the snow will fall this weekend, and exactly how much will accumulate," he went on to say.
Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings at metservice.com or on mobile devices at m.metservice.com. You can also follow our updates on MetService TV, at MetService New Zealand on Facebook, @metservice on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com