Is this the coldest day of winter? Auckland shivers in sub-zero temps

Aucklanders are waking to the coldest morning of the year with temperatures hovering around freezing - and some parts dipping under zero.

And remarkably the northern city is even colder than Wellington.

Some suburbs in south Auckland are recording negative temperatures before 7am while the city centre is on just 2C.

"It's actually really cold up there," said MetService forecaster Alwyn Bakker. "We've got Whenuapai at 1C but Ardmore went down to -1C."

Jack Frost has been sweeping his cloak over much of Aotearoa overnight. Here is the state of the nation temperature-wise at 7am today. ✨❄🌞The coldest places this morning was Saint Arnaud with -7.7C and Pukaki with -7.6C.^AB pic.twitter.com/IexzoTtlIN

— MetService (@MetService) July 2, 2020

With much of New Zealand waking to frosts, Bakker said the chilly temperatures spanned the entire country in the wake of this week's snowfall in the central North Island. The only places escaping the icy start were eastern areas such as Gisborne and the far north.

"It's pretty miserable in Wellington at the moment but you guys are colder than us. Wellington city is between 6C and 10C," he said.

In comparison the coldest place in the country where people lived was Tekapo which plunged to a bone-chilling -6C overnight.

Bakker said the single digit temperatures in Auckland would likely warm to reach 12C or 13C by afternoon, with the city enjoying blue skies overhead this morning.

Yesterday Niwa announced last month was the fifth warmest June on record since 1909.