Snow continues to fall over parts of Christchurch and North and Mid Canterbury with some schools now closing in areas south and west of the city.

Mid Canterbury saw falls get underway just after midnight with some decent amounts now lying on the ground in Ashburton.

Christchurch is seeing some heavy falls move in over some suburbs and beginning to settle in places despite rain falling earlier.

“In some places the snow is quite thick and yet in other areas it’s a comination of sleet and snow” says weather analyst Richard Green.”It still looks like the heaviest falls will take place before midday however it could be even colder after lunch”.

WeatherWatch.co.nz is getting reports of substantial falls over inland areas. Sheffield is reporting nearly 15cm in places, With Darfield about 12 and Oxford near a similar amount. Those totals should continue to increase relatively sharply this morning.

Wellington saw a thunder and lightning display earlier this morning.Dunedin has ice and snow on the hill suburbs this morning and Auckland has seen another big tide this morning flooding a small portion of the motorway network.