A slew of weather warnings and watches have been issued as a wintry blast brings heavy snow, rain, thunderstorms and hail to large parts of New Zealand.
It comes as a northwest flow strengthens across central and southern New Zealand on Tuesday, while fronts move across the South Island bringing periods of heavy rain to western areas. A deep low is then forecast to move eastwards just to the south of the South Island on Tuesday night, followed by a strong and cold southwest change.
While a lot of the wind watches and warnings don't start until later on Tuesday, some places have already recorded gusts over 100km/h this morning.
The Mt Hutt Summit saw a wind gust of 161km/h. This was followed by Cape Turnagain, with wind getting up to 128km/h. Puysegur Point at the very bottom of New Zealand saw a wind gust of 126km/h while Mid Done in Southland recorded a 115km/h wind gust.
Weather watches and warnings
An orange strong wind warning is in place for large parts of the South Island and the lower North Island.
Wairarapa north of Featherston, including the Tararua District all the way down to Wellington and Marlborough including the Sounds is in the firing line, with a warning in place from Tuesday evening until Wednesday morning.
Further south, the Canterbury High Country, North Otago, Dunedin, Fiordland, Queenstown Lakes, Central Otago, and Southland including Stewart Island will also see strong northwest gales, which are forecast to reach 130km/h.
A warning is in place for these areas from 9am on Tuesday until 3am on Wednesday for all areas except North Otago, Dunedin, and Clutha with that warning ending at 8am.
MetService warns the wind could be damaging and urges people to keep up to date with the latest forecasts.
"Strong wind gusts could damage trees, powerlines and unsecured structures. Driving may be hazardous, especially for high-sided vehicles and motorcycles," MetService said.
Heavy rain is also on the way for the South Island, with a watch issued for Westland, the Canterbury lakes and rivers and the headwaters of the Otago lakes and rivers.
The watch is in place from Tuesday afternoon until 6pm, with periods of heavy rain and possible thunderstorms forecast for these areas, according to MetService.
The lower South Island will also see wild weather, with a large dumping of snow expected for Queenstown, Central Otago, inland parts of Dunedin, Southland, Clutha and Fiordland.
Snow is forecast to get down to 200m for these areas and heavy snow watch is in place.
A strong wind watch has also been issued for Auckland, including Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, with winds expected to approach severe gale at times.
A watch is also in place for the Banks Peninsula for 39 hours until midnight Wednesday, while the Canterbury Plains also has a watch until 4am on Wednesday.
But there is hope on the horizon, with a ridge of high-pressure forecast to move over New Zealand from the west on Thursday, bringing settled weather to end the week.
Road snow warnings have been issued for Desert Road (SH1), Lewis Pass (SH7), Arthur’s Pass (SH73), Porters Pass (SH73), Lindis Pass (SH8), Crown Range Road, Milford Road (SH94) and Dunedin to Waitati Highway (SH1).
