Clear skies and cool temperatures

The sun will be out next week, but that won’t mean it’s going to be warm. File photo.

It has been an eventful week of weather for New Zealand as a large area of low pressure brought strong winds, thunderstorms and eventually snow to higher parts of the country.

The first strong cold front moved over the South Island late Tuesday before racing over the North Island early Wednesday, bringing a burst of heavy rain and squally thunderstorms to the western and northern regions of the country.

'A total of 9500 lightning strikes were detected by MetService radars during a 24-hour period starting 5am Tuesday” says MetService meteorologist April Clark. 'A wild night was certainly had in the capital as thunderstorms dumped 16.4mm of rain over the airport between 9 and 10pm, and large hail was observed in the western suburbs.

'Behind the front, showery southwesterlies dropped temperatures leading to the first low snow event of the season, blanketing Queenstown airport overnight Wednesday.”

This regime persisted into the weekend as snow briefly lowered in the south with each successive front. Although there were breaks in the showers, especially for those in the east, no region was spared from the bitter cold as southerlies dragged successively cooler air onto New Zealand.

'The only region benefitting from the southerly flow is the west of the South Island where skies are set to remain clear for the next few days.”

The cooling trend in daytime temperatures is forecast to hit the hand brake from Tuesday onwards as a ridge of high pressure moves onto the country bringing back more settled weather. However, as showers and cloud clear overnight temperatures are forecast to plummet.

'Inland regions can expect some hard frosts heading into next week,” says April.

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