Snow and bitterly cold conditions, possibly worse than last month's snowfall which brought much of Otago, including Dunedin, to a standstill, are predicted for Sunday night.
MetService issued a special weather advisory warning of an "exceptionally cold outbreak" to spread over New Zealand from tomorrow. It was likely to cause significant disruption to the country, as the cold outbreak did about two weeks ago.
A progressively colder southerly flow was expected to establish over the country, with the first big dip in temperatures on Saturday night when it hit the South Island, bringing "significant" amounts of snow from southern Fiordland to Otago Peninsula.
Forecaster Mark Pascoe said it was fairly certain snow would fall to sea level in Otago, possibly throughout the district, but mostly along the east coast.
"What will be different from the last one is that it will last longer."
While the heaviest snow was expected on Sunday night and Monday morning, and then ease off, the cold winds would continue as another surge of cold air hit, he said.
"The snow level might rise a little, but it'll stay cloudy, windy and cold."
Temperatures would hover about the mid-single figures until the end of the week, with minimum temperatures expected to be around 0degC, as severe frosts were not expected.
The snowfalls were expected to disrupt traffic on many roads in the South Island, and newborn livestock was expected to come under stress from wind chill.
Large sea waves from the southwest were also expected along parts of the New Zealand coast on Monday and persist until mid-week.
It was still too early to know if warnings would be issued for the snowfall, so people needed to keep up to date with the latest weather information, he said.
In North Otago, Waitaki civil defence is monitoring the threat of further snow to low levels in the district this weekend and warning people to be prepared.
"Dependent on the amount of snow that falls in the district, the emergency operations centre may move into a monitoring phase to meet any issues which may arise," Waitaki emergency services manager Chris Raine said yesterday.
He advised people to stock up on food and supplies.
- Additional reporting David Bruce
