Late winter sunshine has been sparse recently and most of the country is enjoying a break from a number of recent ‘ wet ‘ events. It’s a chance to soak in the rays (and for much of the country to dry out too), however there’s not much respite, as the next system arrives tomorrow.

West Coasters have enjoyed more sunshine than many regions of late and today is just another typical winters day on the coast, according to some locals!

Frosts developed in many places overnight seeing temperatures plunmmet and it looks like that it will be the case again tonight.

South Island weather analyst, Richard Green says ‘There were a number a centres recording 5, 6 and 7 degree frosts last night which made some roads icy and it looks like that  will be the situation again tonight but after that, cloud and rain will affect many parts of the nation from later tomorrow and the frosts should go back into hiding once again’.

Green continues to say, ‘ With more moisture due late tomorrow and into Tuesday, the coldest air over the South Island isn’t going to budge very quickly, so that inland areas of the mainland might see more snow within the next 36 to 48 hours. This is on top of a number of snowfalls that have affected the area recently and once more, skifields could be inudated with the white stuff!’

Although temperatures have been about average for the nation as a whole if not a little above during the winter up until this point, rainfall totals in some eastern regions, since the beginning of July, have been more than 200% higher with little respite in site over the next 2 to 3 days.