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NZ VIDEO: Here. Comes. Winter!

Snow to low levels, thundery downpours and a big temperature drop is on the way for NZ later this week and weekend with some places inland through the South Island dropping to -10C at night with daytime highs barely in the positive single digits.

*Correction, Phil incorrectly says “Thursday” instead of Tuesday at the start of this video (blame the long weekend brain!)

Snow to sea level is possible in Southland and Otago, but as of today it was more likely above 100 or 200m in those areas later this week. Snow to sea level is often borderline in NZ unless we have an Antarctic blast off the ice shelf – this one is close, but not quite coming from that far south. 

All of NZ will be affected by this wintry change – but not everyone will have severe weather with our mountains and ranges splitting up the wet weather and windy weather.

We have your forecast through until Sunday.

Comments

Lee on 4/06/2025 12:03am

Thank you Duncan. SO informative and I learned so much….in my early 70s ! 🙂

WW Forecast Team on 4/06/2025 12:10am

Thank you Lee, what an awesome compliment! 🙂
– Phil D

Wayne on 3/06/2025 11:58pm

It is not all bad. It is winter and good to see a good dumping of snow on its way for the skiing season and frosts to kill off the pesty bugs. Winter back to its norm of a decade or so ago. Thanks for the update.

WW Forecast Team on 4/06/2025 12:10am

Agreed! Love to see normal winter weather blasts.
Cheers 🙂
Phil

Heni on 3/06/2025 4:48pm

Hi! I’m in Auckland and am wondering if this is something I should be worried about? Metservice has put out some watches that seem concerning.

WW Forecast Team on 3/06/2025 7:22pm

Hi there, a Watch isn’t the same as a Warning. A watch means severe weather may or may not happen, whereas a warning means it’s likely to. Auckland is borderline for wind/rain today but likely won’t have too many issues based on current data. Of course, keep up to date with MetService in case anything changes.
– WW

Millsy on 3/06/2025 5:50am

Why are we getting this bad weather, and when we are going to get sunshine again?

Mr Magoo on 3/06/2025 9:23am

January

Peter O'Shea on 3/06/2025 1:46am

Great update. Thanks Philip. Looks like the news will be full of stories about snow in Canterbury esp Mt Hutt, come the week.Let’s hope it’s the sign of a cold winter ahead. Hasn’t been a good one for a while!

WW Forecast Team on 3/06/2025 6:04am

Thanks Peter – good to finally see a proper southerly coming in for the first time this year for the entire country. Still some warmer bursts of weather on the way though.
– WW

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