Nor-west winds will be building over parts of NZ going into Thursday with rain on the West Coast becoming heavy – then colder air arriving at night and across Friday for the South Island. By Saturday the polar airflow boundary will surge right across NZ from the Deep South up to the Far North.

Snow is possible to low levels in the lower South Island – but the snow level itself moves around a bit and there are some large dry areas in the mix. To see if snow is likely at your place check out the forecasts at WeatherWatch.co.nz (or in our app) or from RuralWeather.co.nz – the snow icon appears when snow is likely. Of course snow showers, like rain showers, can be isolated and may surprise some people, but with large dry areas thanks to our mountains and ranges this event doesn’t look like a major snow event at lower levels. For the North Island the snow level is even higher, with most falls above 1000m, but some flurries are possible for a time this weekend down to 600m – but again there may be large dry areas as this occurs. Keep up to date with MetService warnings, watches and mountain forecasts.

The cold weather lingers into Monday then starts to ease as we go into Tuesday.