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.