Cold blast to start Winter – more unsettled weather ahead

After much of May was dominated by settled weather, this past week has been a reminder that we were heading for Winter. With unstable westerlies dominating the lead up to the weekend, heavy rain and thunderstorms with hail affected much of the country. The west coast of the South Island was inundated with rain most of the week with totals exceeding the 500mm mark for a few stations over the course of the week or just a few days.

The Severe Weather continued as another significant weather system took aim at the country just in time for winter. Plenty of Heavy Rain, Wind and Snow Watches and Warnings were issued as a low-pressure system made its way across New Zealand on Friday and Saturday.

“What made the weather so interesting is that the low pressure sourced its wind from as far south as Antarctica, dropping temperatures and allowing snow to lower to 200 metres in parts of the South Island,” explains MetService Meteorologist Kyle Lee.
“At higher levels, we had reports from some South Island ski fields who received around half a metre of snow which is welcome news ahead of the start of the ski season,” continues Lee.

There was also a Heavy Rain Warning for Canterbury Plains and Christchurch late Friday into Saturday morning, with stations recording between 50-80mm and stations out on Banks Peninsula getting over the 100mm mark, with flooding being reported in Kaiapoi just north of Christchurch city.

There is brief relief for most as a ridge of high pressure pushes onto the country to end the long weekend tomorrow.

But the working week ahead is set to be another turbulent one as another significant feature is expected to bring severe weather from Wednesday. “The nature of the system could mean more heavy rain and some more snow for parts of New Zealand, so it’ll be interesting week ahead,” says Lee.

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