Winter makes presence felt

A wintry blast yesterday brought settling snow to Dunedin for the first time this winter.

About 15cm of snow fell on the hills about Dunedin, down to 200m, as polar air whipped across the lower South Island, WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan said.

The air temperature in Dunedin at 3pm yesterday was between zero and 3degC, and wind chills were as extreme as -6degC in some coastal Otago areas, he said.

Heavy snow down to 100m fell in Southland, and skifields across the South Island also had good dumpings.

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said the Remarkables skifield had 25cm of snow in 24 hours.

"That's on top of 80cm we've had over the past week.''

Mr Anderson said more snow was due throughout the week.

"Winter has well and truly arrived,'' he said.

While the snow was good for the skifields, it did causedisruption on some roads.

State Highway 94, from Te Anau to Milford Sound, was closed on Friday and remained closed yesterday from Hollyford to The Chasm because of intense storm conditions, snow and avalanche hazards.

State Highway 87, from Outram to Kyeburn, was closed to towing vehicles because of snow and ice.

Skippers Rd was closed by a debris slide at the Blue Slip, the same place where the road was closed by fallen rock and earth last week.

The slip followed intense rain during the previous 24 hours.

High winds around Queenstown on Saturday also led to several flights being cancelled.

Westerly winds howled across parts of the country.

Gales spread as far north as Auckland and hurricane-force winds slammed parts of the lower North Island.

The strongest gust in the country, 195kmh, was recorded at Cape Turnagain, on the East Coast of the North Island, MetService meteorologist Chelsea Glue said.

Rimutaka Hill had gusts of 155kmh.

Ms Glue said the wild and unstable weather was expected to ease briefly today, as a ridge of high pressure spread across the country.

It would mean lighter winds and clearer skies, but also cooler temperatures.

She forecast severe overnight frosts for the Otago and Canterbury regions.

The whole country would then go back to unstable westerly flows on Wednesday, she said.

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