As we head towards the middle of the afternoon the front bringing snow showers and wintry cold air lies roughly halfway up the South Island.

Southland, Otago and Fiordland are mostly taking the hit of cold air with snow, sleet and winter rain and temperatures hovering around zero and the single digits. Clear spells are also in the mix.

Further north, around Christchurch, the cold front is yet to arrive. As you can see in the latest rain radar image there isn’t a lot of moisture heading north – but the temperature map shows the colder air. Canterbury won’t have a major cold snap, but it will be colder overnight and on Wednesday.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the main features of weather over the next 24 hours are much colder air and strong to gale force winds. Snow will be an issue for some highways but generally speaking it won’t be lingering too long for most – with the winds whipping things along quickly. 

In fact the winds are still building – the worst will hit overnight and across Wednesday for the South Island with gales over land then further east out at sea winds may be up to hurricane force. For example on Wednesday morning the eastern tip of Banks Peninsula may have damaging winds over 100km/h while Christchurch reaches gale at times possible and inland Canterbury may only be a bit breezy or blustery.

The worst of the winds to the south east will brush the eastern coastline of the South Island – developing tonight and moving across Wednesday. See the WIND MAPS to better understand tonight and tomorrow.

1:30pm (Wind portion via earth.nullschool.net)

1:30pm Observations – click for live and latest nationwide

1:15pm rain radar / NZ Taxpayer / NZ Government.

Wind forecast map for 9am Wednesday. Area in purple/grey means winds up and over 100km/h to hurricane force (over 120km/h). Click to see wind maps across the next 10 days in 3 hour segments.

I know, right? This was taken a couple of hours ago, the snow has reached the bottom now, suspect we’ll cop it soon… pic.twitter.com/OJDXk8rb9p

— Generic Kiwi (@Generickiwi) June 13, 2017

– WeatherWatch.co.nz