“Tonight, we are expecting the coldest of the year. Parts of Central Otago, the Mackenzie Basin, we’ll see dropping down to -7C. Even in Auckland, it’s the first frost of the year, parts of Auckland will probably have a frost,” Bellam said.
Temperatures were expected to plunge to 3C for parts of Auckland overnight before rising to 14C, with mostly fine conditions apart from a few showers developing in the afternoon.
MetService has forecast showers for most of the upper and lower North Island, while fine and partly cloudy conditions were expected in central areas.
It said there would be “possible severe” frosts in Queenstown, where the temperature was expected to drop to -4C overnight. MetService forecast a high of 5C for Sunday, dropping to -2C in the evening.
Eastern areas of the South Island had forecasts for rain, while the west was tipped to have a mostly fine Sunday.
Christchurch has a cloudy forecast with some showers. MetService said the Garden City could receive snow down to 500m, lifting to 800m throughout the day. The city’s forecast high was 7C after dropping to 0C overnight.
Heavy snowfall has been seen around the South Island over the past week, prompting the New Zealand Transport Agency to intermittently close highways through mountain passes.
“There’s been a decent dollop of snow across the South Island,” Bellam said. MetService described the snowfall as a “winter wonderland”.
State Highway 8 between Twizel and Fairlie and SH80 from Lake Pūkaki to Aoraki Mt Cook would be closed overnight from 6pm “due to snow and icy conditions”, the transport agency said.
The next update would be at 10am.
In the Cook Strait, a heavy swell warning amid waves up to 10m high, which prompted Interislander and Bluebridge to cancel all their Saturday sailings, was due to lapse in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from Tāmaki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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