“Things are staying pretty southerly, which means the cold air has come in and everything’s settling down under this high pressure.”
Meanwhile, Auckland has held the double digits with the coldest temperature, dropping to 10C at 7am.
Extra blankets and heaters might need to be carted out as chilly frosts spread further north over the next few nights.
“It’s certainly feeling a lot more like winter at the moment,” Pawley said, with Hamilton, Tokoroa and Taupō among the North Island centres that could dip to around or below 0C over the coming days.
Pawley said parts of Auckland were expected to get down to 9C, with the city looking “reasonably settled” through the week.
Despite the frosty starts, daytime temperatures are expected to recover into the mid-teens across much of the country, with Kaitāia reaching 17C, Auckland 15C and Nelson 14C.
The cold snap comes as high pressure builds across the country, bringing largely settled weather after recent wet conditions.
After destructive storms battered Wairarapa this weekend, damaging infrastructure and isolating communities, conditions are expected to settle, with only a few lingering showers forecast for the region today.
The worst of the weekend’s wild weather appears to be over for Wellington, where a few showers are expected this morning before clearing by evening.
Partly cloudy skies and southerlies are forecast for the rest of the day.
Pawley said there was “minimal severe weather” expected through to Friday, with much of the country enjoying settled weather apart from isolated showers in eastern parts of the North Island, including Hawke’s Bay.
Another front is forecast to approach Fiordland and the West Coast at the end of the working week.
“That’s when we’re going to see northwesterly winds build up again and essentially they’ll chase away all of those cold temperatures that we’ve been having,” he said.
🌞 What’s in store for the rest of the weekend and the start of the working week? 🥶
📈 High pressure comes to dominate the country.
🌦️ But there will still be some cloud and showers about, especially over the next few days in the eastern North Island pic.twitter.com/edZGhwug6T
— MetService NZ (@MetService) June 26, 2026
In the meantime, the settled weather is expected to help preserve snow already on the country’s skifields, although fresh natural snowfall is unlikely.
“The lower temperatures will be meaning that that snow sticks around a little bit more than if it was to just melt straight off again,” Pawley said.
“We’ll be keeping a close eye on the next front as it approaches to see if it will be bringing the type of conditions that generate snow, but it might be a bit early to tell at this stage.”