It was a rough night in Auckland and other western areas with gales, hail and loud squalls hitting from the west, while in Southland and Otago snow has been steadily falling to lower and lower levels, including some light snow in Dunedin.

We’ve reached peak cold now, the entire country is under the influence of a Southern Ocean sou’wester and while it does ease later today and Tuesday, next week New Zealand may have a repeat performance. WeatherWatch.co.nz severe forecasters are already monitoring a possible deep low in the Southern Ocean next week helping dredge up a bbig Antarctic southerly. We’ll continue to monitor in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, this week will see some improvements. While today is colder than average for many places (and tonight will be even colder) the week ahead will see rough weather easing and temperatures slowly lifting.

Here’s the latest on severe conditions over the next 48 hours…

– WeatherWatch.co.nz