Another cold blast this weekend + Christmas Day weather
17/12/2025 11:31pm
As we’ve been saying for several weeks now, we have a spring-like pattern going through December, but with summer-like temperatures. By that we mean windy, changeable, weather with injections of cold, but otherwise still plenty of hot days – especially in the east and north of the country.
But over the coming week we do see some cold air, with the chance of snow on the mountains this weekend in the South Island and even frosts in some areas (at higher elevation).
All of NZ will feel the cooler airflow, which for some will be cold, others more refreshing.
We also have the latest on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day – the very unsettled weather pattern south of New Zealand and Australia is making it harder to lock in the forecast yet, but we have the latest.
Comments
Latest Video
Another cold blast this weekend + Christmas Day weather
As we’ve been saying for several weeks now, we have a spring-like pattern going through December, but with summer-like temperatures….
Related Articles
Spring-like until Christmas (NZ’s 11 Day forecast!)
Severe gales, heavy West Coast rain, and temperature fluctuations are on the way as spring weather returns following a much…
NZ: Spring gales, temp drops (& spikes) + Fiji has a tropical low to monitor
We have our first forecast for Christmas Eve & Day today, but this coming week looks spring-like as a colder…
Windy westerlies return next week + Vanuatu/Fiji tropical cyclone risk update
(No video Friday, next update is on Sunday) — NZ has a cooler/colder change coming in on Friday as a…
Add new comment
G Neil on 18/12/2025 12:30am
Why does this La Nina look more like an El Nino in Northland. No rain and westerlies every day. Only 8ml of rain this month.
Reply
WW Forecast Team on 18/12/2025 1:55am
Hi there, basically because La Nina is only very weak, and measured a long way from NZ (at the equator, north of Tahiti). The more dominant driver of our NZ weather this month is mostly coming from south of NZ and Australia. When you have lows south of us, highs north of us – it makes windy westerlies, and that’s also what El Nino does… it creates an ongoing spring (but with summer heat) and can lower rainfall in northern and eastern NZ). There’s still some chance a subtropical low will bring you some rain within the next two weeks.
– WW
Reply