The second week of the school holidays has a real variety of weather, mostly dominated by a windy westerly flow. NZ has a number of cold fronts coming this week with bursts of rain, strong winds, snow on the mountains and often drier and sunnier to the east.

But even the east will get some rain this week with enough energy pushing across the country and rainfall totals returning to normal if not wetter than normal across many regions in both islands.

The winds will be warm and cold at times this week with a mixture of warmer than average and colder than average days and nights. Most places look frost free though, due to the windy weather but a few South Island frosts are possible with the winds not quite so consistently strong there.

We also have a brief pulse of cold air this week with snow levels in Otago lowering to perhaps 300 or 400m for a time. This may see a few flurries in Queenstown and perhaps into the surrounding areas – but totals won’t be much lower down. 

It’s definitely a colder week in the very south but a milder week in the very north – a classic westerly flow set up. WeatherWatch.co.nz says the westerly will linger until the weekend when it turns more southerly on Saturday and fades out by Sunday for a time.

The strong westerly flow will also drive up wave heights on the western side of New Zealand with dangerous marine conditions for a time, especially mid-week.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz