19 Jun 2013

New Zealand braced for severe winter weather

New Zealand is bracing itself for some severe winter weather during the next 24 hours, as a strong southerly wind blasts very cold Antarctic air across the country.

The New Zealand Met Service has issued numerous severe weather warnings – mainly for heavy snow and damaging winds, with the South Island likely to bear the brunt of the bad weather.

On the South Island, snow is expected to fall down to sea-level in the far south and east, with 50cm of snow above 300 metres and more than a metre of snow above 500 metres.

The snow is expected to make roads impassable and lead to people living in remote areas being cut off.

It’s not just the snow that will cause problems. The wind is also expected to be very strong, with damaging gusts of around 90mph possible through parts of Westland.

The New Zealand Met Service is warning that trees and power lines are likely to be brought down in the worst affected areas, with dangerous driving conditions – particularly for high-sided vehicles.

North Island will escape the worst of the severe weather, but there will still be some heavy rain with severe gales. Wellington is most likely to see the strongest gusts of wind.

It’s easy to think that this type of weather is unusual for New Zealand, with it being in the southern hemisphere and close to Australia. However, in the southern hemisphere, it is winter, with their shortest day of the year just a few days away.

New Zealand is only around 1800 miles away the edge of the Antarctic – a similar proximity that the UK has with the edge of the Arctic sea ice.

So, if the wind blows from the right direction, a feed of very cold air can easily reach New Zealand, bringing wintry blasts.

There’ll be a brief respite from the severe weather on Saturday, but there are signs of more wintry weather affecting the South Island especially early next week.

As the wintry weather moves through, I’ll be keeping an eye on what is going on and posting updates here on my blog and on Twitter – @liamdutton

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