{"id":557304,"date":"2026-08-03T08:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/557304\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:14:10","slug":"coldest-day-of-the-year-forecast-as-snow-reaches-towns-in-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/557304\/","title":{"rendered":"Coldest day of the year forecast as snow reaches towns in the south"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAll affected passengers are being moved to alternative sailings and are being contacted directly,\u201d the ferry operator said.<\/p>\n

Bluebridge services may also face delays or cancellations if swells reach the forecast height. <\/p>\n

MetService meteorologist Silvia Martino said that in eastern parts of the country snow is expected to hit lower levels than it did over the weekend, making tomorrow the wintriest day of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep your eyes peeled for flakes falling right down into town on Tuesday morning if you\u2019re in Otago or Canterbury, and for a fresh frosting up on the hills by Wednesday morning for folks as far north as Gisborne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motorists in the south are advised to take care as snow, icy roads and reduced visibility could make driving hazardous.<\/p>\n

\u201cCheck the snow level in your regional forecast to prepare if you\u2019re going to be driving, particularly in Dunedin and Christchurch on Tuesday morning, and keep up with any updates on road conditions from NZTA Waka Kotahi and local council or emergency management,\u201d Martino said.<\/p>\n

\"WidespreadWidespread frosts will build throughout the week, with Thursday set to be the coldest day of the year for many parts of the country. Photo \/ MetService<\/p>\n

Rain showers in the southernmost parts of the country will clear tomorrow thanks to developing high pressure, giving way to crisp sunny days.<\/p>\n

However, the clearer skies will allow temperatures to fall even further overnight.<\/p>\n

Widespread frosts are forecast through the middle of the week, with Wednesday morning marking the first of several bitterly cold starts.<\/p>\n

Thursday could be the chilliest yet, Martino said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven for our coldest month of the year, these are exceptionally cold overnight temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhitianga and Hamilton are forecast to be almost 10 degrees colder than average for this time of year on Thursday morning, at -3C and -5C respectively, and even the \u2018winterless north\u2019 is set to see frosty starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wet weather will then return to end the week as showers and cloud move in from the Tasman Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAll affected passengers are being moved to alternative sailings and are being contacted directly,\u201d the ferry operator said.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[806,45290,6757,131886,2841,5972,5616,42,2959,78,5829,43,529,1118,17711,78383,32258,57639,23432,33973,6633,1240,124561,223,165,1961,210,40,38,41,39,6699,686,18980,379],"class_list":["post-557304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-as","tag-blast","tag-bringing","tag-coldest","tag-country","tag-day","tag-forecast","tag-headlines","tag-high","tag-in","tag-many","tag-news","tag-north","tag-of","tag-parts","tag-polar","tag-reaches","tag-rough","tag-seas","tag-shiver","tag-snow","tag-south","tag-sweeps","tag-the","tag-their","tag-this","tag-through","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-towns","tag-week","tag-winds","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557304","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=557304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}