{"id":608537,"date":"2026-09-22T21:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608537\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T21:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:16:09","slug":"extreme-care-urged-on-south-island-roads-as-snow-prompts-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608537\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Extreme care&#8217; urged on South Island roads as snow prompts closures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Road users in the South Island are being urged to take &#8220;extreme care&#8221; this morning after an earlier closure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/22\/cold-snap-brings-snow-to-south-island-roads-gales-and-frost-ahead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">due to snow.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, snow was forecast for several South Island roads, with strong winds in Invercargill and frosts expected across much of the country later this week.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said part of State Highway 73 between Christchurch and the West Coast was closed earlier due to the snow. <\/p>\n<p>The section between Springfield and Arthurs Pass Village, including Porters Pass, was closed just before 4am, and reopened about 5.20am.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While &#8216;winter&#8217; driving conditions also persist in other parts of the South Island today, including State Highway 1 Dunedin to Waitati, there are no current state highway closures in the South,&#8221; an NZTA spokesperson said. <\/p>\n<p>MetService had two road snowfall warnings still in place, for Desert Rd in the North Island and Lewis Pass (SH7) in the South Island until 9am. <\/p>\n<p>The forecaster said snow showers would clear slowly this morning, and another 1cm could accumulate above about 700 metres.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday MetService said temperatures across the country were set to plunge, with Auckland forecast to drop to 4C on Thursday before the next weather system arrives on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including the Taxpayers Union fires back at Nicky Hager, and Liam Lawson&#8217;s job change.  (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Road users in the South Island are being urged to take &#8220;extreme care&#8221; this morning after an earlier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[158,111,43,139,69,3393],"class_list":["post-608537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-weather-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608537","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=608537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}