{"id":541810,"date":"2026-07-24T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541810\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:58:13","slug":"polar-blast-bringing-snow-to-all-alpine-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541810\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar blast bringing snow to all alpine passes"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is shaping up to be a wintry weekend with a blast of polar air set to bring snow, severe frost and icy conditions across parts of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Road snowfall warnings have been issued for all the country\u2019s alpine passes and the Dunedin to Waitati Highway (State Highway 1) from\u00a0Friday night and into Saturday.<\/p>\n

Snow showers were expected to affect the Dunedin highway\u00a0above 300 metres overnight until 8am on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Southland\u2019s Milford Road (SH94) is closed on Friday night from East Gate (Hollyford) to Donne River (Westgate) as up to\u00a015cm of snow has been\u00a0forecast, including around the Homer Tunnel area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Milford Road Alliance said the highway was expected to reopen before 10am on Saturday once snow was cleared and any ice managed.<\/p>\n

Snow was expected to affect the Crown Range Road, linking Queenstown and W\u0101naka, on Friday night and early on Saturday morning, with up to 3cm accumulating near the summit.<\/p>\n

Snow showers were likely to also affect the Lindis Pass (SH8) and Haast Pass (SH6) until Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

In Canterbury, snow was forecast for Porters, Arthur\u2019s (both SH73) and Lewis (SH7) passes on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the central North Island, the Desert Road (SH1) snow was expected to settle on the road with up to 5cm accumulating at the summit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Homes flooded in Grey District\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weather watches are in place for parts of the South Island and lower North. Heavy rain and strong winds were expected, with the potential to spark tornadoes.<\/p>\n

About half-a-dozen homes flooded overnight on Thursday\u00a0in the Grey District, and there was a slip on a road on Cobden, with more heavy rain likely.<\/p>\n

MetService head of weather Heather Keats agreed with suggestions it could be an \u2018inside\u2019 end to the week\u2019 – at least on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSunday\u2019s okay, but today and tomorrow, very much looking messy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a bunch of fast-moving features and fronts tied up and that will be thunderstorms, snow, heavy rain, maybe even some small tornadoes and water spouts. And that\u2019ll race up and over the country – the North Island – tomorrow, and then it kind of races away.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then we\u2019re left with a very cold southerly flow. So we\u2019ve got every type of weather coming over the next sort of 48 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overnight thunderstorms hit Westland and Fiordland, she said with about 250 lightning strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing crazy, but that\u2019s just the start of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavy rain has also hit Buller and Nelson Lakes at the top of the South Island.<\/p>\n

A formal heavy rain watch was in place Friday and Saturday for the Tararua Ranges, north of Wellington, with a moderate chance of being upgraded to a warning. More were likely to come, with tornadoes possibly in the mix, Keats said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire western coastline of New Zealand, I\u2019m talking all the way up around Northland and the Coromandel Peninsula and then it\u2019ll track a little bit over to the eastern side as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThunderstorms, really strong wind gusts and the conditions are right to see some water spouts and some small tornadoes. We don\u2019t say that lightly. Not all thunderstorms produce thunder, not all thunderstorms produce tornadoes. But we are seeing that signal in the models. So it\u2019s going to be a watch-this-space today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are anywhere sort of near those western coastlines, keep an eye on your app because if we do see a severe thunderstorm, we will put out that warning [to give you an]\u00a0opportunity for you to get safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for temperatures, among main centres Christchurch was likely to get bragging rights for the coldest, with the South Island city dipping below zero.<\/p>\n

Though snow has been forecast, \u201cbecause it\u2019s fast-moving, won\u2019t be hanging around for long, Keats said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it clears out on Sunday, and we will have sun, we will have some nice weather coming for most of the country on Sunday, it just drops to be freezing. So we\u2019re talking -4\u02daC\u00a0\u00a0for Christchurch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking pretty average temperatures for places like Auckland, so high of 14\u02daC, low of 4\u02daC, but with that wind chill, it\u2019s going to feel closer to 1\u02daC.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Additional reporting by Allied Media\u00a0<\/p>\n

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