Antarctic Blast – Snow, ice, travel – full coverage
Posted by wwadmin on Tue, 26/07/2011 – 10:00
Filed in:National News
Bitter frosts this morning have followed the most widespread snowfall in New Zealand in 16 years.The MetService has lifted all snow warnings, which had been in place for Taupo, Wanganui, Manawatu, and Taihape, as snow showers have now cleared in the central North Island.
However as the skies have cleared, severe frosts have set in, particularly in the South Island.
WeatherWatch.co.nz reported severe frosts in southern centres this morning, with the mercury dropping to -8 in Queenstown, -7 in Timaru, and -5 in Christchurch.
h/t to Bruce of Newcastle
I like goofing around in FlightGear a bit (q.v. (I like to pronounce the vide bit like Alex in that Burgess movie) http://www.flightgear.org/ ), and NZMF (or Milford Bay Airport) is quite a nice place to flap around in a slow plane. If I ever get the chance I will be on the South Island in a heartbeat. I just wish the immigration policies weren’t so strict.
“Rare snowfalls across NZ, none in Auckland – yet
WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan said had been unconfirmed reports of snow flakes falling on Auckland’s Mt Wellington.
He said reports of snow fall were coming in thick and fast this morning.
“We’ve had reports of snow in Lower Hutt and Wellington overnight and this morning. We’ve got reports of snow settling on the cars in Masterton for the last hour, snow at very lower levels at Lake Taupo and in Taupo itself, snow in Hawera, Stratford, Taranaki,” Mr Duncan said
Mr Duncan said there had also been one unconfirmed report of snow near Raglan, in Waikato, however there had been very heavy hail in the region.
“This isn’t the snow storm of the century … but what makes this system different … is the low snow level, which is sea level across much of southern and eastern South Island and to very low levels right across the lower North Island. This is a national event,” Mr Duncan said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10740652