Leaving the Settled Week Behind - 11 June 2017

MetService News Release
11 June 2017

Apart from a low that crossed the North Island on Tuesday and a front that moved northwards over the country during Friday and Saturday, the weather has been settled over Aotearoa in the week just passed.

“Settled weather often means clear skies, meaning plenty of sun during the day, but penguin friendly overnight temperatures.” said Meteorologist April Clark.

“Tekapo takes the prize for coldest overnight temperature this week with a low of -6.8 degrees Celsius recorded overnight Tuesday” she continued.

Though the astronomical mid-winter (or winter solstice) is not quite upon us, the rising of Matariki (or the Pleiades star cluster) in the northeast horizon marks the winter mid-point, or Maori New Year for many across New Zealand. The weather, for the most part, has been conducive to the Matariki celebrations, with clear skies rewarding rugged up star gazers with unobstructed view to the stars, and moderate winds allowing kites ‘to flutter close to the stars’ in this modern adaptation of an ancient custom.

Next week brings a change of pace, with a series of fronts, bringing heavy, thundery rain to the west of the South Island and gale force winds to exposed places of the South and lower North Island. The polar vortex also bulges northwards with these fronts allowing Antarctic air to escape north, and temperatures to lower. Snow is now forecast to about 500 meters in the far south later Tuesday and into Wednesday. Keep updated with the evolving situation at metservice.com

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