[ad_1]
Winter has well and truly arrived with locations around the country falling below 0C on Tuesday morning.
MetService reported St Arnaud in the South Island as reaching the coldest temperature of the day with -5C.
Twizel came a close second at a bone-chilling -4.5C, Timaru and Queenstown hit -1C, and Wānaka dropped to 0C.
In the central North Island, Taumarunui and Waiouru dropped to -3C, while Taupō hit -1C on Tuesday morning.
READ MORE:
* Can I, or should I, repot and fertilise my houseplants in winter?
* Hundreds hit the powder at skifield’s opening day
* Temperatures plunge to -10C for inland south, another freezing night ahead
Around the rest of the North Island, both Hamilton and Masterton hit 0C, Rotorua and Palmerston North started the day at just 1C.
The North Island’s temperatures are expected to peak at 17C in Kaitaia on Tuesday, while Nelson is forecast to take out the hottest temperature in the South at 15C.
MetService meteorologist Alain Baillie said cold temperatures were expected to stick around for much of the week.
“Tomorrow and Thursday will see quite cold temperatures, the sky is going to be clear over much of the country.
“We’ve seen pretty widespread very cold temperatures, certainly over the South Island, for the last week or so and then the North Island joined in today.”
The weather was expected to be fine for much of the country on Tuesday, with just a few showers affecting Northland, the Gisborne coast and the eastern coast of the South Island.
The weather would be mainly fine for everyone around the country on Tuesday with “lots of sunshine around”, Baillie said.
Stuff
Temperatures are expected to drop well below average in many locations on Wednesday and Thursday. (File photo)
Western parts of the North Island would see particularly cold temperatures on Thursday, much colder than this part of the country had seen so far this year, Baillie said.
MetService is forecasting “pretty frosty conditions” for central areas on Thursday morning, with Taupō expected to hit -3C which is six degrees below the area’s average temperature for this time of year.
Hamilton is expected to hit -1C on Thursday, more than five degrees below its avergae temperature.
Later in the week, a weather front is forecast to arrive in Northland on Thursday afternoon, bringing about a wet weekend for the northern half of the North Island.
“We’ve got a system starting to impact Northland on Thursday afternoon and that will bring rain, move southeast and impact Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and Gisborne from Thursday afternoon.”
A low was forecast to form west of Auckland and Northland and linger there for several days, bringing rain or showers to nearby regions over much of the weekend, he said.
[ad_2]