Midsummer
snow has fallen inland in Otago as the South Island was wrenched back
to winter temperatures within hours on Friday morning.
Snow fell
at Naseby and Ranfurly, and according to WeatherWatch.co.nz, at Lake
Mahinerangi, 35 kilometres west of Dunedin, as an Antarctic blast moved
up the country.
Now is usually the warmest time of year, but an
anticyclone, or high, had brought up cold temperatures from the Southern
Ocean, head weather analyst Philip Duncan said.
On Thursday,
Timaru had a high of 27C and Christchurch reached 29C thanks to the
nor'wester ahead of the southerly. But they fell to 3c and 4C
respectively overnight.
Kaikoura fell from 17C to 6C within two hours and Blenheim from 18C to 9C.
Mr
Duncan said the southerly reached Wellington on Friday morning and
would head north, reaching Auckland and Northland in the afternoon and
evening.
"We did get some horrendous wind speeds at Castlepoint," MetService forecaster Ian Gall told NZ Newswire.
Gusts on the Wairarapa coast reached 150km/h in the early hours of Friday, he said.
"Getting
these bursts of quite cold air and decent gales is not usual for the
middle of summer. You expect things to be a bit more settled."
It had been a "tempestuous" summer, he said, but the weekend forecast held for better and warmer weather.
"It's not going to be a long, settled spell, but we will get to see some more decent weather."
NZN