MetService says an active front will approach the lower South Island tonight, preceded by gale-force northwest winds for southern and eastern areas, and heavy rain in the west.
“Fiordland, Southland and Otago, those western areas are probably going to see the worst of it,” meteorologist Ngaire Wotherspoon told The New Zealand Herald.
The agency has issued heavy rain watches for Westland and parts of Fiordland, and strong wind watches for Otago, Southland, Fiordland and Stewart Island. MetService says northwest winds may approach severe gale in exposed places, for 12 hours from 10pm today.
Many in the South have woken to sub-zero temperatures again. At 8am Mt Cook was the coldest centre, on -7.5degC. Omakau was one of the coldest places in Otago, on -4degC. Closer to Dunedin, the airport was a chilly -2.2degC.
Wotherspoon said residents in some inland areas who had laboured under days of freezing fog and frosts would welcome the change of conditions.
Places like Alexandra had been stuck under “quite oppressive” fog, low cloud and near-freezing temperatures in recent days as a stubborn high-pressure system lingered over the country.
“The winds will kick up some of those fog patches and some of those colder temperatures as well,” she said.
The front was also likely to bring rain to some areas. Heavy falls were possible in Westland and Fiordland from tomorrow, while scattered rain was forecast to develop in the South early and spread to Canterbury later in the day.
- Allied Media
