Snow briefly fell this afternoon in the Southland city of Invercaregill.

Our Invercargill Weather Watch reporter Mark Whaley said the snow wasn’t settling on the ground much due to the earlier rain.

Dusting of Snow .  Photo: Malcolm Gayfer, Southland Weather Watch reporter.

Our Southland Weather Watch reporter Malcolm Gayfer says snow also fell in Gore.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the snow is falling as a result of the tail end of the big low moving through.  He says there’ll probably be a mixture of rain and snow showers off and on this evening across Southland and again on Monday”. 

Snow falling on Invercargill rooftops.  Photo by local resident Matt Johnson.

The Weather Watch Centre, which predicted the snow last Tuesday, is warning motorists to take extreme care across central and southern parts of the South Island due to the ice.

“The snow isn’t likely to be as heavy as it was yesterday with the worst of the system now beginning to move out into the Pacific Ocean”.

Mr Duncan says light flurries will also be possible late tomorrow or on Monday along the the southern and eastern coastlines of the South Island – including Canterbury which has so far seen very little from this system.

Earlier today a huge hail storm hit Levin.  This photo shows how heavy the storm was, looking like snow.  Phill Smith, who took the photo, says the ice is still visible 8 hours later.  Currently heavy showers, some with hail and thunder, are spreading across western areas of New Zealand from Nelson to Auckland.