A cold southerly will continue to hack away at temperatures across southern and eastern parts of New Zealand Sunday following a cold front that moved through during Saturday.

Highs of just 12 to 14 degrees will be common place from Invercargill and Dunedin to Christchurch and Wellington – down several degrees from just a day or two ago. 

Meanwhile other places in the lower North Island like Paraparaumu and Masterton should only get as high as 15 as fresh winds from the southerly quarter blow through.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the cold snap is the second in just 2 weeks confirming Autumn has arrived. 

Most places in the north and west of the country should still enjoy mild Summer-like temperatures with Tauranga and Bay of Plenty likely to be the warmest part of the country despite the risk of an isolated shower.  Auckland will again reach into the lower 20s with mainly clear skies and a gently sou’easter. 

Overnight lows will take a dive Sunday night too with many places in single digits south of Auckland.

Meanwhile predictions by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology about an imminent tropical cyclone have now been dropped.  On Friday they had “High” confidence of a cyclone developing in the Coral Sea, 2000kms north west of New Zealand, but on Saturday afternoon they suddenly changed their prediction to “low”.

A small tropical depression measured at 999hPa is expected to deepen a little but isn’t going to become a storm in the short term future.  WeatherWatch.co.nz will keep a close on it over the next week and will update you on any significant changes.