As southern parts of Australia head towards a high of 40 degrees on Thursday the southern part of New Zealand will be lucky to make it into the low teens predicts WeatherWatch.co.nz.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the cold snap will be short but the air will be noticeably colder as the airmass drags itself up from past the halfway mark between Antarctica and NZ.

“This continues the pattern of stormy Southern Ocean weather with this next south west flow pulling air up from a couple thousand kilometres south of us”.

Image / Thursday’s wind map shows a cold south west flow rising up from just north of Antarctica / Weathermap.co.nz (Click our Maps section above for more details)

Mr Duncan says Southland and parts of Otago will only just make it into the teens on Thursday with the wind chill making it feel another degree or two cooler.

Christchurch only has a high of 16 degrees on Thursday as the cold sou’wester moves through.

The southerly change will push into Wellington on Thursday and Friday with highs of around 18 but the wind will feel a couple of degrees cooler.

Further north of Wellington and the cold airmass runs out of steam.

Hamilton will still reach the low 20s, well down from feeling like the low 30s last week.

And in our largest city Auckland the sou’west change will be more “refreshing” than cold.  Highs of 21 to 24 degrees are predicted for the coming days but like Hamilton the feels like temperature may well be 10 degrees lower.

As for Melbourne’s heat wave on Thursday, well, South Islander’s need only wait 48 hours for some of that warmth to reach our shores.  “The hot air mass which will cross South Australia, Victoria and NSW on Thursday will push across some parts of the South Island on Saturday” says Mr Duncan.  “Canterbury will be back into the late twenties but Southland and coastal Otago may not be as hot, with highs still possibly only in the teens”
 

– WeatherWatch.co.nz