We track the latest on Severe Tropical Cyclone Lola which was still Category 4 this morning over Vanuatu. However NZ has a wintry blast coming later Thursday and Friday which is stealing our weather news headlines here.

The cold blast will bring snow to the ranges, heavy West Coast rain and snow to low levels in Southland and Otago…maybe on Dunedin’s hilltop suburbs early on Friday and into Queenstown too. It’s short lived but brings cooler air to the North Island too. Australia gets this blast first today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile as Lola falls apart over the next two days, it will merge with a small weak low near Brisbane to form a large Tasman Sea low by Sunday.

This isn’t a storm – but combined with powerful high pressure east of NZ it will likely encourage some heavy rain and windy sub-tropical nor’easters for northern NZ from this Sunday to next Tuesday, while the South Island has risk of frosts in some spots following the wintry change. Talk about spring!