NZ weather chaos

Second storm in two weeks with wind gusts of 200+ mph. When will the NZ media make the link with climate change?!

Storm lashes the country

Snow is falling in the ranges around Wellington as a storm batters much of the country for a second day.

Image from the last storm to hit Wellington

Stuff,

15 July, 2013

Snow is settling on the summit of the Rimutaka Hill Road this morning, and the road is closed. Snow has also closed the Akatarawa Rd, which joins Upper Hutt to the Kapiti Coast, about 7.30am.

The Desert Road is closed this morning, as are many highways in the South Island. See a full list of road closures here.

Freezing conditions had been expected to lead to snow down to 300 to 500m in some parts in the North Island, and down to 200m in parts of the South Island, MetService's Dan Corbett said.

Gale force winds reaching 130kmh were forecast for most of the country, the agency warned.

Exposed parts of Marlborough, Wellington, Wairarapa, Whanganui, Taranaki, coastal Hawke's Bay, southern Gisborne and Northland bore the brunt of the wind overnight but the wind was expected to ease this morning.

Extensive damage has already been caused however, with trees, branches and powerlines coming down.

Flights out of Wellington have resumed. Most were on schedule, but some had been cancelled.

Ferries were back running again today with some delays.

The 8.15am Kaitaki sailing from Wellington to Picton had been scheduled to leave at 11.30am, with knock-on delays on other sailings expected.

The Arahura left Picton for Wellington at 10.30am as scheduled.

The Aratere was out of action till next Monday for scheduled maintenance.

Waves were high in Cook Strait this morning but were expected to drop during the day.

Power was out to about 6000 Taranaki homes despite repair crews battling horrible conditions to repair damage, however Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh told Radio New Zealand he expected all customers would be reconnected by the end of the day. See more about power outages here.

Marsh urged people to keep children indoors around Taranaki today as there would be downed powerlines everywhere.

In the south, snow was expected to ease later today, but parts of Canterbury and the Kaikoura ranges had already received a heavy dumping.

Metservice said another 10 to 15cm would be possible above 400 metres through to today.

A severe weather watch remained in place for significant snow to fall in higher parts of the central and southern North Island.

Heavy rain greeted Christchurch residents this morning, but the worst was over, MetService said.

The city saw 15 millimetres of rainfall yesterday and 4mm has fallen between midnight and 7am today, including 3.6mm within two hours.

However, MetService was forecasting the showers will ease this afternoon and a high of 8 degrees Celsius was expected.

Meteorologist Daniel Corbett said today would remain "yucky", but things would slowly start to get better.

"I note Rimutaka is still at freezing so there could be some more snow showers over the ranges today.

"For people who are going away on school holidays, it would pay to keep an eye on the weather."

Corbett said there had been some soft hail overnight, "which gives you an indication of the temperatures we're facing around the country".

"We could see snow down to 300 to 500m in some parts in the North Island, and down to 200m in parts of the South Island.

A southerly airstream that was coming in across the east would keep temperatures down.

"I know in Wellington it's at 7 degrees at the airport and about 4 degrees at Kelburn, Wellington will be lucky to hit 8 degrees and Auckland will struggle to hit 14 degrees today."

He said a high sitting in the Tasman Sea would bring light relief over the next two days.

"Showers will ease back, and a nice big high pressure system sitting to the west with a big smile on his face will make things a lot better."