The Central Otago District Council this morning advised that snow was settling around Omakau, Poolburn, Ida Valley, Naseby, St Bathans and Ranfurly, and there were reports of falls around the Bannockburn and Lindis areas.
State Highway 85 (Palmerston to Kyeburn) and SH87 (Kyeburn to Middlemarch) are closed because of snow, and NZ Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi has cautions in place for most inland highways.
Further north, SH8 is closed from Twizel to Fairlie.
Both St Bathans and the Ida Valley areas are now restricted to 4X4 access only.
The council said teams were out clearing snow and gritting the roads, and urged that only essential travel be undertaken.
"Please, if you do not need to be out travelling- stay put!"
The Queenstown Lakes District Council advised that chains must be carried by motorists travelling on the Crown Range Road.
MetService this morning issued a heavy snow watch for inland Otago, and the Canterbury High Country south of the Rangitata River, saying it expect periods of heavy snow above 700m, where snowfall amounts may approach warning criteria. It lifted the warning just after 9pm.
Meanwhile, road snowfall warnings are in effect for the Lindis Pass (SH8), with snow showers falling to 500 metres until 8pm today.
In Canterbury, snow fall warnings have been issued for Porters Pass and Arthur's Pass (both SH73) and the Lewis Pass (SH7) until 9am on Thursday.
The Dunedin City Council has advised of some surface flooding around the city, and said crews were out checking for issues. The council said some bus services could be affected.
Dunedin, particularly Mosgiel, was hit by torrential rain on Sunday, going into Monday, leaving properties flooded, roads closed temporarily, a handful of buildings damaged and many cars flooded.
MetService meteorologist Paris Marshall said today’s rain was not expected to be as heavy as it was on Sunday and Monday, but because the ground was already sodden along coastal Otago, between Balclutha and Oamaru, it might cause more flooding.
‘‘There’s another feature that’s moving its way up the east coast of the South Island ... a cold front ... that’s bringing along this band of rain.
‘‘The ground is already quite wet and we’ve got quite a lot of impacts there already.
‘‘So we’ve gone and called the councils in those areas and let them know that there’s another event coming.
‘‘It’s not going to bring as high totals of rainfall, but with the amounts that are already there and the impacts that have already happened, this could lead to more damage on quite vulnerable areas due to that previous event.’’
She urged residents to clear gutters and drains again, and sandbagging might be necessary.
‘‘I would definitely recommend that people just prepare as if it was the previous warning, as it’s very hard to know how unstable the ground is with the previous events.
‘‘Stay away from [places] vulnerable ... to slips, and areas that are low-lying that are still recovering.
‘‘And watch out for streams and river levels because they might rise up again.
‘‘Reach out if you feel unsafe. ‘It is quite unstable when the ground is wet and exposed to quite a lot of rain.’’
Up to another 50mm could fall within six hours, or up to 100mm within 24 hours, she said.
Because of the threat of more flooding, Oamaru’s Waitaki Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) remains open and the local state of emergency declaration in place for the Waitaki District will be reviewed this afternoon.
‘‘There is another weather event expected which might exacerbate the already wet conditions,’’ a centre spokesperson said.
‘‘The EOC and staff will be ready to escalate if needed.’’
Yesterday, a DCC spokesman said there were no plans to reopen the city’s EOC bunker, but staff would be keeping a close eye on the forecast in case it became necessary.
