Whanganui warms up after cold snap; more rain expected this week

A cold weekend gives way to a warmer and wetter week. Photo / NZME

After a nationwide cold snap over the weekend, Whanganui’s temperatures are expected to return to the winter average this week.

On Monday night, temperatures in Whanganui city dropped to 2.8C, the lowest forecast this month and potentially for the whole year, MetService meteorologist Michael Pawley said.

“That’s about 4C colder than average for this time of year,” he said.

Pawley said it may have felt colder than the reported low because of the difference between ground temperature and air temperature.

MetService records temperature from 10m off the ground and, because the ground temperature tends to be cooler, there can be up to a -4C difference in the reported temperature and how cold it feels on the ground.

Further inland in the Whanganui hill country, overnight minimums dropped to -3C.

Over the past seven days, Mt Ruapehu’s Tūroa ski field had 7cm of snowfall while Whakapapa received 4cm.

Pawley said the low-pressure system that brought thunderstorms to Auckland over the past few days would move down the country towards Whanganui, bringing rain but also warmer weather.

“It looks to be a pretty wet week for Whanganui,” he said.

“We’re seeing a series of fronts coming down from the north and with them they’re bringing the risk of some thunderstorms to some areas.

“These fronts come down over the country, and then the low sticks around and the wet weather splashes around for a lot of the week.”

On Wednesday, heavy rain can be expected but there is a low chance of downpours.

Into Thursday, there is a “minimal risk of severe weather” but lighter rain will continue.

Despite the cold weekend, Whanganui should return closer to its average temperatures for this time of year.

“We’ve been stuck in this southerly flow but with this low pressure system it’s dragging down some warmer air and Whanganui should return to its climatological average,” Pawley said.

Wednesday is forecast for a “warm” 19C high and 12C minimum, moving into 18C and 10C on Thursday with another small drop to 17C and 8C on Friday.

The weekend is forecast for maximum temperatures in the mid-teens and lows dropping to about 5C.

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.