Fog has been a bit of a theme for parts of the country this week and this morning it’s appearing in a combination of a few coastal and inland areas.

The thickest blanket yesterday affected more than half a dozen airports and this morning one or two could be on the cards and it might pay to check airport conditions if you’re flying out
There has been a small clearance overnight but not everywehere has got the all clear yet.

The country should see during Wednesday mostly dry skies with the odd shower popping up but more probable is low cloud or fog with drizzle patches possible about exposed coastal regions.

Passengers were a bit confused and upset yesterday when Jetstar cancelled flights due to fog, despite clear skies and Air New Zealand flights departing on time.
Jetstar services between 6am and 8am from Auckland to Wellington and return, and Auckland-Christchurch return were cancelled the previous night.

When the fog cited by Jetstar as the reason for the cancellations had gone by morning, would-be passengers expressed confusion via Twitter.
Student Nicole Botherway tweeted: “Air nz is flying… Jeez stop being stupid jetstar”.

Roxana got in touch with WeatherWatch and was fairly exasperated with an experience yesterday…
“Was supposed to land in chch, one failed attempt at 12.45am. Circled for 30mins then diverted to Wellington where everything was shut! On a international flight not able to go thru customs till after 5am, stuck on plane on tarmac for over a hour then let into a little room to wait for customs to open.. Now still sitting in Wellington trying to get home to chch…..”.

Jetstar spokesman Phil Boeyen said “several hundred Jetstar customers were affected by yesterday’s fog but we had flights back on track by later in the day” but Air New Zealand at the same time had “no significant delays or cancellations” to services between Auckland and Wellington.

One Christchurch-Queenstown return service was cancelled due to fog at Queenstown Airport.

Neither Auckland nor Wellington were affected by heavy fog today but Hamilton and Dunedin were and to a lesser extent – Christchurch.

Sunshine is also part of today’s play and western areas should see more than their eastern neighbours and inland areas could see a combo of both.

We’re still keeping an eye on the incoming colder air this weekend and it appears the far south will see the coldest conditions but not necessarily the wettest.
Eastern areas could see 3 or 4 days of unsettled and showery southeast to easterly winds either during the weekend or early to mid next week.

Wednesday and Thursday next week could see rain fall briefly across parts of New Zealand but two to three days later sees a Tasman Sea low bringing wet conditions to many of us and a prolonged cold southerly outbreak appears to hang over eastern areas of New Zealand with snow possibly to low levels.

Temperatures look set to lower considerably as the end of the month nears and as the shortest day leaves us.

-WeatherWatch