Thunderstorms, heavy rain and blustery winds are set to sweep across the nation from tomorrow before a shivery Southern Ocean surge brings back bitter winter conditions.<\/p>\n
MetService meteorologist John Law told the Herald that Thursday would mark a turning point after days of frosty starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for many of us will notice it\u2019s not quite as cold tomorrow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The West Coast is expected to \u201cbear the brunt\u201d of a complex low moving in from the Tasman Sea before spreading north during the day.<\/p>\n
Law said colder air higher in the atmosphere and milder air near the surface would create \u201cthe perfect conditions\u201d for what he described as \u201cchunky\u201d thunderstorms capable of producing \u201cintense bursts of rainfall\u201d, hail and wind gusts of up to 100km\/h.<\/p>\n
A strong wind watch has also been issued for the Canterbury High Country from 10am, with north-westerlies expected to approach severe gale force in exposed places.<\/p>\n
The wet weather is expected to reach Wellington, the K\u0101piti Coast and Taranaki late tomorrow before spreading north overnight into Friday.<\/p>\n
MetService has issued a heavy rain watch for the Tararua Range from midnight tomorrow until midday Friday.<\/p>\n
Strong wind watches are also in place for Wellington tomorrow night, and coastal Southland, southern Fiordland and coastal Otago on Friday.<\/p>\n
Auckland is forecast to remain largely dry through tomorrow before rain arrives overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the plus side, with a bit more cloud around and some stronger winds and some slightly milder air, temperatures won\u2019t be a concern tomorrow night,\u201d Law said.<\/p>\n
However, the reprieve would be short-lived. \u201cWe\u2019ve not seen the back of those cold temperatures as we head in towards the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the front clears, a surge of cold Southern Ocean air is forecast to push north sending the country \u201cback into cold frosty conditions\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n
Law said Friday was shaping as \u201ca pretty nasty feeling day\u201d for the far south, with Southland, Clutha and the Dunedin coast hardest hit by gusty southerlies and freezing downpours.<\/p>\n
The cold blast is expected to reach Wellington on Saturday morning, when strong southerlies are forecast to make an early start feel \u201cpretty raw\u201d, while Wellington and Christchurch struggle to highs of 8C or 9C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thunderstorms, heavy rain and blustery winds are set to sweep across the nation from tomorrow before a shivery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44484,111,43,139,269935,69,6560,20592],"class_list":["post-549626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-coldsnap","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-newzealandweather","tag-nz","tag-rain","tag-thunderstorms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}