Yesterday on NewstalkZB there was a discussion about weather patterns with Tony Trewinnard from Blue Skies in Canterbury.

There have been three snowy events inside the last 10 months hitting Christchurch which has been an unusual occurrence.Tony Trewinnard said snow has been infrequent over the last two to three decades over Christchurch and parts of Canterbury but lately there seems to have been a change in the pattern.

“If we go back to earlier decades such as the 50’s and 60’s snow was more common then and we may now be entering a new phase where we could see more of that again” he said.

Mr Trewinnard said Christchurch could be regarded as the snowiest city in New Zealand and even though Invercargill and Dunedin may see it take place more often, Christchurch seems to get the heaviest dumps such as last week.

He went on to say that it could be time for the Garden City to look at getting more prepared for such events. There were significant warnings in place this time but still the event shut down many schools and businesses.
Overseas cities which saw two to three events a year were well geared up for the snow whereas Christchurch has struggled somewhat. One of the reasons was that Christchurch has seen lean periods of snow and hadn’t needed to get geared up.
 
It might be a different story from now on.

Story by weather analyst Richard Green