It’s still a little windy around the North Island today, and perhaps some parts of the upper South Island, as colder air moves in bringing a west to south-west airflow. Some snow is possible around places like northern Southland and the Queenstown area, although it won’t amount to much at low levels – but shows it’s a colder day for the very lower South Island. It’s fairly mild for many other parts of NZ though.

Let’s get into the forecast for Tuesday..

RAIN:
Rain today is mostly on the West Coast and much of that is in South Westland. Showers or patches of rain will spill over into some parts of Southland and Otago while the North Island will see a few showers being blown in from off the Tasman sea – mainly in the west. Eastern areas are dry or mostly dry.

WIND:
Westerly quarter winds dominate in most parts of the country today (a bit more north-west in some areas and south-west in others). Check your hourly WeatherWatch or RuralWeather forecast for more local detail. Strongest winds are likely to be around Cook Strait and some exposed parts of the North Island and very upper South Island – otherwise winds aren’t too much of a problem today.

TEMPERATURES:
It’s still fairly mild across the country with temperatures getting up to around 20° in the eastern North Island and maybe the Far North, while potentially the late teens in the north eastern corner of the South Island… however it is worth noting colder air is moving into the South Island and some places in Southland and Otago may struggle to get into double digits. The inland area from Gore to Alexandra to Queenstown will be coldest today with highs in the single digits. The colder airflow doesn’t go into the North Island until overnight tonight.

NEXT 2 DAYS AHEAD:
On Wednesday high-pressure in the Tasman Sea moves closer to the North Island and that helps to usher in more of a southerly flow there. It will be cooler especially for those of you in the eastern and lower North Island following the mild Tuesday there.

Almost all of New Zealand is dry on Wednesday but can’t rule out a few remaining showers in the west and with rain still around Fiordland. Later on Wednesday those W to NW winds will start to pick up again in the lower South Island and on Thursday more severe NW gales move across the South Island’s interior and up to Cook Strait and the lower North Island. A cold front with heavy rain and thunderstorms moves into West Coast while Southland may also have a wet cold change on Thursday.

*Programming note, we have no weather video tomorrow/Wednesday due to travel.

As always drill down deeper with your hyper-local, hourly, 10 day forecasts at WeatherWatch.co.nz – or download our Free WeatherWatch App.