A cold snap that brought an early taste of winter to parts of the South Island yesterday will bring cool temperatures to the North Island today, with thunder and hail expected to hit Auckland early this morning.
Much of the country has been plunged into winter with snow falling overnight and temperatures dropping below zero in some places.
A "fair bit of snow" fell across Southland and Otago overnight, MetService meteorologist John Law said, with some "pretty cold temperatures" to match.
"We've still got showers running in towards Southland and also up towards Banks Peninsula, and that's going to catch some more snow showers as we go though daytime here, with snow down to about 200m-300m," he said.
"And we also have some snow up about the top of the Desert Rd on the North Island."
Lake Tekapo dropped to the lowest recorded temperature overnight, falling to -3C.
"We've got some more showers through Auckland and up towards the northern area, we're going to find it's a struggle to get rid of those. They're not wintry as such, but we will have some heavy ones.
"And it's going to be cold up there too. Even up in Auckland we're looking at temperatures being on the cool side, and also if you're out in that wind it's going to feel colder too, particularly for the Manukau Heads area out towards that western coast, Piha way, they're going to be quite blustery."
Temperatures in Auckland would peak at a high of 16C today, he said, in stark contrast to Friday's summery 25C.
"That's a big difference," Mr Law said.
"It's a cold one, so it's definitely one of those days to wrap up."
Showers would ease off during the day, and a high begins to build over the country bringing clear skies but cold nights, he said, particularly in inland areas overnight on Wednesday. There would be some frosty mornings to watch out for.
Meanwhile, many Aucklanders had a rough night's sleep after thunderstorms arrived at 3.30am and continued until dawn, with squally gales and heavy downpours, WeatherWatch said.
Today would be cold across the country, but the worst of the weather would ease off by this evening, with a much calmer night for many.
The warmth returns on Thursday, WeatherWatch said.
Yesterday, areas of Otago, Clutha, Fiordland and Southland were painted white with snow, as a cold front moved its way up the country.
The snow in Queenstown yesterday. Photo / Ben De Hann
Queenstown. Photo / Ben De Hann
Down south, chilling temperatures saw people pull their winter gear out of the closet two months early, with a temperature of 4C recorded in Queenstown.
In the North Island, heavy rain brought down more than 300 slips on roads across the Wanganui district.
Phil Lemin sent this photo of snowing falling in Dunedin this morning to WeatherWatch.co.nz.
Councillor Ray Stevens, the council's infrastructure spokesman, said contractors had been working "flat out" to keep roads open.
The New Zealand Transport Agency urged drivers to slow down yesterday, allow for extra travel time and carry chains, as snow and ice affected several inland Otago and Southland highways.
State Highway 6, from Dipton to Garston, the main highway linking Invercargill and Queenstown, was the worst affected by the weather.
Further north, police warned motorists to take care in the wet weather after a series of crashes.
One person was extracted from their car and four others were injured after a vehicle hit a bridge barrier in Whitford early yesterday afternoon.
Emergency services were called to Whitford-Maraetai Rd after the crash about 1pm, in which five people were injured.
Fire communications shift manager Scott Osmond said fire crews managed to free the trapped person fairly quickly.
"It is raining currently and police advise all motorists to exercise extreme caution on our roads," police said.
Police also appealed for motorists to slow down in Waikato after nine crashes in the district yesterday.
A small truck and a car both crashed into a wall on the western side of the Cobham bridge yesterday. No one was injured.
A woman and her 2-year-old child also escaped injury after she lost control of her car on Newcastle Rd in Hamilton and careered into the bottom of a two-storey brick house.
Rural Support Otago co-ordinator David Mellish said despite the harsh conditions, farmers had been well informed of winter blast.
"We've had gale sou'westers with a high wind chill factor, 4-12mm of rain over Otago, snow 300m above, south Otago has snow on the ground, yesterday the temperature was 2-3C ... the power was off for a while," he said on Newstalk ZB this morning.
"But this is a two-day event really, and it's well forecast, farmers had plenty of warning of it."
Snow on the hills in Sumner, Christchurch. Photo / Rita Mason
The rain and snow would help replenish water reserves after a dry summer, he said.
"We've got a very low moisture deficit, any moisture will help, but the cold will actually slow growth and that is quite a concern," he said, because the drop in temperatures had arrived so early.
