One more surge of colder air is moving up the South Island today, once again knocking back daytime highs below where you’d expect for the end of December.

Some parts of Southland and Otago may again struggle to reach the teens today – but warmth does come back on Friday and in fact by Sunday parts of Southland will be in the low 30s. So have no fear, summer is not yet done for you, but it is a bit up and down at the moment.

Dunedin has cooler weather also, then a warm up in the days ahead – but Dunedin’s being impacted by cooler air in the Southern Ocean area that slides past southern NZ and brushes Dunedin as it swirls around the Otago coastline. Dunedin is cooler today, then milder in the days ahead, but it may again be back to highs in the teens by the middle of next week.

As we go through Thursday these showers along with the cooler air move up Canterbury before fading before reaching the North Island, although a few showers may be sparked along the eastern North Island up to about Gisborne, but without the temp drop.

The rest of the country is looking mostly dry and mild.

Check your hyper-local RuralWeather.co.nz or WeatherWatch.co.nz forecast for more details. We’ll have more info later today on how NYE and NYD are shaping up – plus the start of 2022!

Plenty of #LaNina energy up in the #CoralSea.

A low pressure zone has formed there and is an 'area of interest' as it may grow (not yet a storm). It's a bit complicated as far as what happens as it all moves south. Regardless, the start of January 2022 looks dry for most of NZ. pic.twitter.com/7fTjTOfMAE

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) December 29, 2021