Blooming marvellous way to welcome spring

The first day of meteorological spring is on Monday, and true to form, the magnolias in the University of Otago quad are blossoming wildly amid the recent settled weather.

However, severe weather alerts are being issued as a large low-pressure system from the Southern Ocean brings one last gasp of winter.

MetService has issued heavy rain and wind watches for parts of Otago and Southland early tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, daytime temperatures are expected to reach the mid-teens over the next two days, but lower temperatures behind the front on Friday could bring snow to elevated parts of the South Island, possibly affecting higher roads and stations over the weekend.

The cold, wet weather has been forecast to continue until early next week.