High pressure is moving off NZ and despite a milder weekend coming for most regions it’s all ahead of low pressure bringing some rain, and then followed by an Antarctic blast in the South Island on Monday.

The polar blast is short lived – but may be the coldest shot of air we’ve seen this year into NZ, from directly off the continent of Antarctica which means snow might fall below 100m and even reach sea level for a time (although not yet locked in this far out… NZ’s temperate climate and ocean conditions means snow is often borderline at sea level). We’ll have mored details about this in the coming days in our Weekend Newsfeed.

NEXT 7 DAYS AHEAD:

• This weekend low pressure and strong to gale nor’westers move across the country with wettest and windiest weather over the North Island and upper and western South Island. The eastern South Island looks driest and more settled than other parts of NZ this weekend.

• By Sunday night the Antarctic air starts to blow into Southland and by Monday it will affect the lower South Island – across Southland, Otago and Fiordland and through the Southern Alps. At this early stage Canterbury is not so caught up in it so much due to winds looking likely to tilt more south-west, especially into Tuesday where a few snow flurries may affect the North Island’s Central Plateau.

• But later next week spring-like windy and milder westerlies look set to arrive, and may linger for a while in the NZ area.

---

😍A view of one of the main ewe mobs (900!) moving to greener pastures + a view of the Southern Alps.

🐑Lambing season is underway across #NewZealand. 🚨Be aware an #AntarcticBlast is coming from Sunday PM to Tuesday AM over the South Island.

Credit: Joe Catherwood (Darfield) pic.twitter.com/BceYKj0K4R

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) August 15, 2024

As always drill down deeper with your hyper-local, hourly, 10 day forecasts at WeatherWatch.co.nz – or download our app. We have NZ’s most accurate weather data and more computing power (by far) than any other NZ forecaster.