Wintry blast hits, more on way

The wintry blast that hit the South today is a taste of things to come, with a cold front tipped to send temperatures around the country plummeting over the weekend.

Snow has fallen on high country roads in Otago today, prompting warnings for motorists from the New Zealand Transport Agency.

While conditions have eased this afternoon, more wintry weather is on the way and most of New Zealand is likely to feel the chill as the new front passes through.

  • Check highway conditions here

''Saturday into Sunday, it's going to be really cold,'' MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said. ''There's a windy, wintry feeling weekend ahead.''

Mr Loots said there would be ''a period of rain, then snow to 400m'' in Otago tomorrow, and snow ''down to low levels, if not sea level'' over the weekend.

Temperatures would take a nosedive tomorrow. Overnight lows in Dunedin were expected to reach to 0degC at the weekend.

Weekend temperatures in Queenstown and Wanaka would dip down below 0degC on Saturday night, followed by overnight lows of 0degC on Sunday.

Strong southwesterly winds would accompany the cold, Mr Loots said. "'It's pretty significant for this time of year."

WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan said the cold snap could be bad news for farmers.

"[Farmers] with newborn lambs don't want to hear of polar blasts - but we have somewhat of a polar snap this weekend, starting in the deep south on Saturday...and spreading across most of New Zealand on Sunday."

In Christchurch the minimum temperature will reach -2C tonight and sub-zero temperatures are expected into early next week, MetService said.

A weather watch is being issued for Canterbury with southerly gales expected in the region throughout the weekend.

"Temperatures are going to be very cold. The whole country will be feeling quite chilly," MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said.

"It's subjective. Ski areas are going to be loving it, but farmers are not."

Next week was expected to be fairly settled with only a bit of rain on the radar for the west coast, he said.

Cooler spring forecast

The MetService forecast came as the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research published its regular seasonal outlook predicting spring temperatures would most probably be ''in the below average range'' for Otago.

Precipitation would likely be in the normal range, it said.

Niwa's season outlook also predicted El Nino style weather patterns would continue throughout spring and probably into summer, bringing ''anomalous southwesterly winds''.

- carla.green@odt.co.nz

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