The Antarctic southerly is going to deliver a list of weather extremes across New Zealand for Wednesday and Thursday.

Here are some of the interesting talking points:

🚨❄️#UPDATE: Latest 24 hour #Snow Accumulation Map.

🕗8pm Weds – 8pm Thur

📡Track the coldest air moving northwards live on the @MetService Rain Radar here: https://t.co/sZ6VGec556

(You can see the front is around #Kaikoura, next stop: #Wellington & #SouthWairarapa). pic.twitter.com/ZAuMTvJOzD

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) October 5, 2022

Why are some parts of #Canterbury missing out on #snow? It's all about airflow direction.

1⃣SE wind: Directly into Canterbury, major event
2⃣Southerly: Serious, but some to the south miss out, those to the north get more
3⃣SSW-SW (this event): Big dry areas
4⃣W: Fuhgettaboutit! pic.twitter.com/CH7Uau1VsM

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) October 5, 2022

#Question: When is the main pulse of Antarctic air arriving in NZ?#Answer: It moves up the South Island this afternoon and evening, then over the North Island tonight and Thursday morning. That's when sea level, or low level, snow is most likely.#NewZealand #weather 🥶❄️

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) October 4, 2022

• Lower South Island: Windchill below freezing for 36 hours in parts of Southland – from midnight last night to noon Thursday. It will feel like -1 to -5 for this entire period.
• Lower North Island: Windchill around freezing, or below it, for 36 hours in Wairarapa – from midnight last night to noon Thursday.
• Dunedin has a Daytime Max Temperature of just +5C today.
• Dunedin will have a Feels Like/Windchill of -6 overnight tonight/Thursday morning
• Gore has a Daytime Max Temperature of just +3C today!
• Queenstown’s Daytime Max Temperature is +4C today and the overnight low overnight tonight is -3C
• Arthur’s Pass is forecast to drop to a bitterly cold -9C on Wednesday night/Thursday morning
• Tekapo has a high of only +2C on Wednesday and drops to -7C tomorrow night, record-challenging cold.
• Christchurch has some chance of snow – but totals vary from just a trace or rain/snow mix, to up to 5cm, main risk Wednesday night and Thursday AM.
• Wellington has a high of +7C on Thursday but a feels like/windchill temperature of +2C at lunchtime with a southerly gusting to gale force. Dust the winter scarf off.
• Wellington’s hill top suburbs have a chance of snow overnight Wednesday/Thursday morning
• WeatherWatch.co.nz can’t rule out the chance of some sea level snow flakes in the lower North Island in the early hours of Thursday morning – but won’t be much, if at all.
• The northern most main centres with snow potential (or a rain snow mix) are: Stratford, Dannevirke, Waiouru and Ohakune. Please note: this doesn’t mean heavy snow for all these main centres, but the chance of snow flakes in the main centre (or at least very nearby).
• The northern most areas likely to receive snow are: The Kaimai and Coromandel Ranges – only a small amount (1 to 3cm maybe on the peaks)
• Most likely candidates for sea level snow: Southland, Otago, Canterbury.
• Sleet may fall in Wellington, Napier and Hastings, possibly Palmerston North.
• A huge high pressure system (mostly responsible for this cold blast) will cross NZ over Fri-Sat-Sun bringing settled weather, light winds, cold nights but milder days. Dunedin’s high on Sunday is back into the mid-teens.
• The 7 day “Departure from Normal” rainfall forecast shows a big portion of NZ leans drier than average in almost every region (other than the West Coast, Southland, Wellington and Wairarapa – all of which have normal rainfall for this time of year over the next several days).