Cold snap to follow warm weekend

File photo / Duncan Brown

A cold snap looks set to follow the warm weekend weather.

Parts of the country basked in temperatures in the 20s today, with Taumarunui in the central North Island recording the highest temperature of 23.3C.

Of the main centres, Hamilton peaked at 22C, Whangarei reached 20C, Auckland and Tauranga recorded 19C, and Wellington reached 17C.

In the South Island, Christchurch had a high of 18C and Dunedin recorded 15C.

WeatherWatch is warning a cold snap is set to follow as a southerly change pushes in from Monday afternoon.

However, the southerly would not bring a major polar blast, as the cold Antarctic air was likely to miss New Zealand by a few hundred kilometres to the southeast.

By Tuesday and Wednesday, the cold snap would reach the southern and eastern North Island, with Auckland also likely to be affected. Auckland would see highs drop from near 20C in recent days to just 15C on Wednesday.

WeatherWatch said the coldest air would blow straight into Southland and Otago, with some parts failing to reach double digit temperatures.

Canterbury, Wellington and Wairarapa would also be fairly exposed.

The cold snap would bring rain to Canterbury on Tuesday, where highs would hover around 10C, but sunny weather would return on Wednesday and warm weather on Thursday.

Some heavy snow was possible in the South Island mountains but nothing heavy was expected to low levels.

By the end of next week, WeatherWatch has forecast the start of a windy westerly period that could last for a week or two, bringing warmer weather for most regions.