Earlier, SH8 between Fairlie and Tekapo was forced to close for several hours because of snowfall.
Meanwhile, Makgabutlane said there was a chance of heavy rain and hail this morning and into the evening for many areas, from the top of the north to Buller.
“There’s a lot of places in line for possible thunderstorms, the main risk with that is periods of heavy rain, as well as hail. I think we’ve seen a bit of hail this week, so we could see some hail again in some of those areas.”
She said parts of western Northland, Auckland, western areas of Waikato, Taranaki, parts of Kapiti, and the Marlborough Sounds down to the Buller coastline were in the firing line.
Already this morning, Northland had seen some thunderstorms which were due to rumble down towards Auckland and carry on down the country.
Auckland was most likely to see the storms at around midday.
Makgabutlane said the weather was unlikely to improve for Friday.
“Tomorrow we still see many areas with some showery, very kind of unsettled weather. It’s been a bit of an unsettled run, hasn’t it? And that continues into tomorrow.”
She said there was a renewed possibility of thunderstorms for Auckland and Northland tomorrow morning, as well as a dip in temperatures for most.
The showery weather was expected to linger throughout the weekend, she said.
So far it has been a week of flooding and icy temperatures as winter truly gets under way.
Temperatures dropped below 0 in places like Queenstown and Wānaka while Auckland recorded its lowest temperature yet for 2025 at 4.5C.
Heavy rain caused flooding on SH2 in Bay of Plenty, forcing it to close for more than 12 hours.
NZ Transport Agency said today the road had reopened with a temporary speed limit in place.
