The enormous area of low pressure we talked about earlier this week is still forecast for next week and is still likely to influence our weather with a colder, windier, sou’wester. 

Here are the positives and negatives we can see weatherwise with this big belt of low pressure which will not directly hit NZ but certainly influences our weather pattern next week for a time.

NEGATIVES:

• Sub-zero wind chills in exposed southern areas next week for a time, most like Tuesday morning.
• Single digit highs for a large portion of Southland and Otago until Thursday.
• Snow possible on Alpine passes and roads over 300m State Highways on Tuesday in particular
• Snow possible in Queenstown airport on Tuesday
• Snow potentially to sea level in Milford Sound on Tuesday
• Snow possible on SH1 the Desert Road on Tuesday

POSITIVES:

• The offshore storm is centered a very long way from NZ, meaning we’re only being brushed by the edges of it.
• The cold southerly looks fairly dry, meaning heavy snow to low levels looks unlikely
• As we said earlier this week, the southern placement of this big low means northern NZ not really impacted by it
• Wind chills, while tough for newborn stock, don’t look to drop into negative double digits. 
• Limited travel disruption
• Short lived – the colder air peaks Tuesday, eases Wednesday and double digit highs return to those in the south by next Thursday.

NEXT TUESDAY:

– WeatherWatch.co.nz