It’s daylight savings this weekend – remember to wind your clocks forward – and we’ve certainly had a full helping of typically unsettled spring weather to lead us into the change.

We started the week in a rough fashion – with windy, stormy conditions across much of the country, and snow in the South Island on Monday, causing ferry cancellations, road closures and delays in both islands.
We’ve had a lot of questions come in from our readers about spring, and the recent variable weather in particular – including: “When will these strong winds end?” “So much for spring, it’s snowing at my place”, “Why is it so hot today?” “When can we have a couple weeks of sunny, calm, weather?” – you can check out Philip Duncan’s FAQ page, here.

We ran a story about a local business and strong supporter of WeatherWatch.co.nz, Lert – which aims to provide the fastest potential emergency warning information to New Zealanders in advance of weather disasters.
Lert aims to provide crucial information in times of potential emergencies to subscribers via email and text messages – using data from more than 120 New Zealand sources. You can read more about the company, and its founder Stuart, here.

Some interesting news on the aviation front this week too, as Singapore Airlines and Air NZ announced a new partnership, which will see each airline fly daily between Auckland and Singapore from January 6.
And over summer, Singapore Airlines will fly the Airbus A380 here.

We also ran a strange story about a cold NZ winter this week – and a worker who ended up receiving compensation due to a chilly workspace!
An administrator at Bunnings Warehouse who sat through the winter months at a desk in a warehouse that got down to 6C has been awarded compensation.
Kerry Burrows told the Employment Relations Authority that Bunnings had failed to provide a safe and healthy working environment for her.

A serious issue was under discussion internationally this week, as more than 400,000 people marched through the streets of New York in an effort to raise political awareness of the growing effects of climate change.
The Daily Show’s comedian host Jon Stewart got in on the act, teaching some basic science lessons to members of the US House of Representatives – well worth a watch.

Across the Tasman, this week was a near record one in Darwin, as the city sweltered through its second hottest September day on record on Saturday.
A very hot airmass combined with a late seabreeze to cause the mercury to reach an unpleasant 37.4 degrees, just 0.3 degrees shy of the September record set in 1983.

Turning our attention to the weekend, and it’s looking like another typical spring pattern – with rain, drizzle and showers moving from south to north over Saturday and Sunday.
Check out Philip Duncan’s latest weather video, with the first week of daylight savings kicking into gear too.