Australia has a big cool down right now and it’s coming to New Zealand. Temperatures today and tomorrow across New Zealand will be well above normal, while at the same time more than half of Australia will be more than 8 degrees below average.

That colder change from Aussie arrives in the South Island on Saturday while warmer airflows linger in the north.

Dunedin has a high in the low 20s forecast for Friday…but that tumbles to just a maximum of 12C by Saturday. But further north the cold won’t be felt, with Auckland’s high of 20C on Saturday and barely any shift overnight with a minimum of +18C (and it will be that night before on Friday night/Saturday morning too).

Next week an even colder surge of air from Australia heads to NZ. Overnight lows will be closer to freezing for some inland areas next week – but the unsettled, often windy/cloudy conditions may stop frosts from forming (but worth monitoring).

As for today, the two maps below highlight the setup with Australia mostly below normal and most of NZ above normal.

To drill down with your hyper-local temperature trends (+Humidex/feels like forecast hourly for the next 10 days out) please visit www.RuralWeather.co.nz.