In Otago, area warnings are in place because of snow for SH8 between \u014cmarama and Tarras, including Lindis Pass, SH 85 between \u014cmakau and Kyeburn, and the Crown Range Road.<\/p>\n
The transport authority said extra care is needed when driving those routes. <\/p>\n
MetService has warned severe gales and heavy rain are possible in central New Zealand, while heavy snow is expected in the South Island.<\/p>\n
Snow on State Highway 73 at Porters Pass. Photo \/ NZTA<\/p>\n
A raft of severe weather warnings is in place, with an orange heavy snow warning for Canterbury High Country and Canterbury Plains south of Arthurs Pass, an orange heavy rain warning for the Tararua Range and an orange strong wind warning for Wairarapa, the Tararua District and southern Hawke\u2019s Bay. <\/p>\n
Parts of the Canterbury High Country are under a heavy snow watch, Buller has a heavy rain watch, and Horowhenua, the K\u0101piti Coast, Marlborough Sounds and Hawke\u2019s Bay north of Hastings have strong wind watches.<\/p>\n
MetService meteorologist Luis Fernandes said today is \u201cquite busy in terms of weather in New Zealand\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a strong cold front that\u2019s going to be sweeping over basically all of New Zealand as the day progresses,\u201d Fernandes told the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat strong cold front pushes across the South Island in the morning and then in the afternoon and evening it moves across the North Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
With many families expected to be travelling for the start of the school holidays, NZTA warned motorists in the central South Island to prepare for road closures and weather-related delays because of heavy snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarrying warm clothing, food and water is advised on inland journeys in case of lengthy travel delays or detours,\u201d NZTA said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen snow or ice is on the road, motorists are urged to reduce their speeds, increase their following distances, avoid sudden braking or turning movements and to stay as visible as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernandes said the snow will particularly affect South Islanders travelling inland, with snow set to drop to about 200m.<\/p>\n
Motorists travelling in the central South Island are being urged to prepare for road closures and weather-related delays. Photo \/ NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi<\/p>\n
He said the cold front is expected to lose steam as it moves north, but it\u2019s still looking like \u201canother relatively wet and windy day\u201d for Auckland.<\/p>\n
The good news is the weather, for the most part, is expected to \u201cbecome a lot more settled\u201d on Monday and into the middle of next week.<\/p>\n
While daylight saving spells the start of the spring and summer months, Fernandes said it will \u201ctake time for things to start warming up\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough we have officially entered spring and daylight saving certainly makes it feel a little bit more like summer because of the longer evenings, there is a long tail to spring in the cooler weather in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cold front is set to bring extreme temperatures in some areas. Napier will have a high of 22C today and a low of 3C, while Christchurch will hit 14C after a freezing low of -1C.<\/p>\n
Auckland faces a high of 18C and a low of 10C, Tauranga 19C and 6C, Wellington 15C and 5C, and Dunedin 11C and 6C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Otago, area warnings are in place because of snow for SH8 between \u014cmarama and Tarras, including Lindis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,12889,4509,1668,78,2514,117,111,43,139,69,6633,1240,18835,124561,1865,8528,27218,6861,4998,80],"class_list":["post-612914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-aotearoa","tag-cold","tag-front","tag-in","tag-island","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-snow","tag-south","tag-strong","tag-sweeps","tag-today","tag-trapped","tag-traps","tag-vehicles","tag-weather","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612914","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=612914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}