A Cold Start to Winter
MetService News Release
Tuesday, 03
Jun 2014
A Cold Start to
Winter
The start of June, and the climatological winter, has seen cold overnight temperatures recorded across many parts of New Zealand. Temaperatures dropped to a chilly -7C at Lake Pukaki in the Mackenzie District of Southern Canterbury during the early hours of Tuesday morning. However, the high that has dominated the weather across much of the country for the Queen's Birthday weekend looks set to linger a day or two more.
The return of slightly warmer air from the northwest is set to help lift temperatures later this week, but there are some clear and cold nights forecast for parts of the country in the coming few days. -"During the week, the high is likely to pull away to the northeast of the country as a weakening front moves onto the South Island" Metservice meteorologist John Law said. -"With calm, clear conditions across much of the North Island on Tuesday and Wednesdaynight, we are going to find the temperatures over the Central Plateau and probably eastern parts of the Island dipping back down below freezing."
By the end of Wednesday, another front pushes onto the south and west of the country bringing some cloud and wet conditions for the likes of Fiordland and Westland. The front looks set to slowly move northwards over the South Island in the following days and weaken as it does so.
The onset of winter means the most ski fields will be open by the end of the month, with Mt Hutt and and Coronet Peak scheduled be up and running this weekend. The recent cold outbreak brought some snow to the South Island rangesand the top of Mt Ruapehu.
Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings atmetservice.com or on mobile devices at m.metservice.com. You can also follow our updates on MetService TV, @metservice on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com.