Temperatures plunge to -10C for inland south, another freezing night ahead

Temperatures plunged below -10C in some inland South Island areas early on Saturday, as a high sitting over the country produced clear, calm conditions for many places.

The coldest temperature recorded by MetService early on Saturday was -10.6C at Tara Hills, near Omarama in inland south Canterbury. That was recorded around 8am and 9am, MetService meteorologist Larissa Marintchenko said.

Other low temperatures included -8C at Mt Cook, -7.4C at Tekapo, -5.4C at Lumsden, -4.6C at Dunedin Airport, Balclutha -4.3C and Queenstown Airport -4C.

Invercargill Airport got down to -2C and Timaru to -1.2C, while Taumarunui had the coldest temperature recorded in the North Island with -2.4C.

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Around the main centres, Ardmore had the lowest temperature in Auckland with 6.5C, Christchurch Airport had 2.5C, Hamilton Airport 2.1C and Upper Hutt was coldest in Wellington at 1.1C.

Auckland is forecast to be sunny on Sunday with a 16C high and Wellington is expected to be sunny with a 13C maximum.

Christchurch could get down to -2C early before warming to 12C with some high cloud from afternoon.

Marintchenko said several factors were contributing to the low temperatures. For one thing, it was winter, so sunshine during the day was not providing much warming.

Also, a cold front a few days ago had left a “cold, cold” air mass over the country.

Since then, a high pressure system had meant clear skies and not much wind for many areas.

So the air wasn’t mixing and cloud wasn’t around at night to retain some of whatever daytime warmth there had been, Marintchenko said.

Low temperatures were expected again overnight on Saturday, with a possibility of severe frosts in places such as Otago and inland Canterbury.

But a front with some clouds was expected to move up the South Island during Sunday. That would raise temperatures, and while some places could still be frosty the frosts wouldn’t be so severe.