It’s been a bitterly cold morning in the South Island after clear skies led to heavy frosts and big loss of warmth.  Invercargill woke to a minus 5 degree frosts and by 10:30am the air was still only at 0 degrees.  The Weather Watch Centre’s head weather analyst Philip Duncan says temperatures are still bitterly cold going in to this afternoon.

“It’s currently just 1 degree in Gore, 2 degrees in Milford and 3 in Queenstown.  Up the road in Dunedin it’s 5 and just 7 in Christchurch.  I’d expect most of Southland and Otago will be lucky to see 5 or 6 degrees as their high today”.

Clear skies created by an anticyclone (high) over the South Island are responsible for the cold weather.  Duncan says the next few nights will be extremely chilly in both islands. 

“Overnight lows in Auckland will dip to around 5 or 6 while sheltered places south of the Bombays will see frosts.  The further inland and the further South you go, the bigger the frosts will be”.

Rain and showers are still falling north of Whangaparaoa thanks to a low pressure nearby, but that will clear the north tonight.