Gales, snow, and bitterly cold air aren’t usually in a November forecast but that’s the set up for Southland and Otago on Friday and early Saturday as a large Southern Ocean storm churns by to the south of New Zealand.

WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters say the wintry outbreak will see sleet to sea level and snow to near sea level in Southland and Otago, with Southland most exposed.

“This is a short, sharp, wintry outbreak” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.  “As we said earlier this week it will peak on Friday then ease on Saturday with warmer weather returning as soon as Sunday”.

But Friday and overnight Friday could see snow complications for motorists, air travellers and even farmers. 

“We don’t expect major problems for the farming community so late after lambing has finished but certainly heavy snow can cause headaches for some farmers” says Mr Duncan. 

“Travellers are most likely to be inconvenienced by the snow.  We expect snow flurries to affect Queenstown airport for a time on Friday or overnight Friday and roads above a couple of hundred meters above sea level throughout Southland and Otago”.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says snow was a possibility on the hills around Dunedin but that the west to south west wind direction would probably spare Dunedin city of any snow.  Invercargill was likely too near sea level but sleet and hail were both expected there.  Snow is likely in Queenstown and Cromwell.

As for Canterbury, the wind direction is likely to be too westerly to deliver rain showers let alone snow, but temperatures were still expected to take a bit of a hit on Friday and Saturday before warm northerlies return on Sunday.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz