It is exceptionally cold this morning through the South Island’s interior with the air temperature falling to -8 in some parts of Otago along with very low temperatures through Southland and around the Southern Alps.

As of 7:45am it was -7.8 in parts of Queenstown, -8 at Cardrona, -7.8 in Lauder and -6.7 in Ranfurly.

Lumsden has -4.2 and -4.7 in parts of Invercargill and -3.7 at the Nightcaps.

Further North and both the base of Mt Cook and around in Tekapo are sitting on -3.2, -6.7 at Castle Hill Village and -2.8 at Arthur’s Pass.

Meanwhile it’s much warmer in the north. Cape Reinga is currently on +14 degrees compared to Bluff in the deep south on -2.3 as of 7:45am.

It’s possible some places are even colder than we can see (Let us know if you’ve recorded lower today!)

As for the top main centres…it’s much warmer. Auckland is on +12, Hamilton +10, Wellington +10, Christchurch +4 and Dunedin around +3.

Observations as of 7:45am – click images for LIVE versions: 

– WeatherWatch.co.nz