A wintry blast in the south and the leftovers of a tropical cyclone in the north will both independently produce severe weather risks for New Zealand. The wintry blast arrives tonight and peaks on Friday morning over the South Island bringing low level snow flurries, heavy West Coast rain and gales to some places.

This weekend it eases but then there is a significant frost risk for sheltered inland areas. On Sunday a new and fairly large low pressure zone will move into the upper North Island fuelled by the leftovers of Cyclone Lola.

The low itself isn’t too stormy but as it interacts with high pressure (bringing that frost risk further south) it will create a windy Squash Zone which can produce strong to damaging nor’easters with a period of heavy rain too. It’s not totally locked in but we give more clarity today on how this may shape up in the days ahead.

*We have your forecast to next Wednesday – and our special Australia-only 7 day forecast is out today too.