New Zealand has "one day left" before the cold southerly arrives, blasting the country with howling wind, snow and driving rain.
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"The main cold southerly change arrives in the lower South Island during the day and will make for a colder than average night across two-thirds of the South Island by Thursday night/Friday morning as it slides northwards," WeatherWatch warns.
"On Friday the cold southerly change then moves northwards into the North Island with another colder surge coming in at night and into Saturday morning.
"For northern NZ this main cold southerly change may not arrive until after midnight and heading into Saturday AM."
On Saturday, the entire country will be engulfed by the cold and windy flow.
"Hail, low temperatures, many regions below average temperaturewise by day and squally or wintry showers are all possible," WeatherWatch warns.
Auckland is forecast to drop to 13C, while the Bay of Islands will drop to 14C on Saturday.
It will be even cooler in the south, as Christchurch will drop to only 9C on Saturday. Those in Queenstown and Dunedin should also prepare for a blast of snow down to 400m and hail in some areas.
However, the end of the Queen's Birthday weekend will see the return of finer weather.
"Sunday, however, does see drier weather in many regions (showers in the east) and Queen's Birthday Monday looks warmer with westerlies and sunnier in the east (but a few showers in the west again)," WeatherWatch says.
Newshub.
