Hold on for more wild winds

Photo / NZ Herald

New Zealanders have woken to a chilly, windy autumn morning today, as yesterday's wild weather continues to batter the country.

In the lower South Island it has been bitterly cold overnight, with 2.5 degrees celsius recorded in Oamaru, 2.6 degrees celsius in Gore, 2.8 degrees celsius at the Invercargill Airport and 3.3 degrees celsius at the Wanaka Airport.

MetService has this morning issued a severe weather for the Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, Otago, Southland, Nelson, and Manawatu regions, with winds of up to 130kmh possible in some areas this evening.

Forecaster Matthew Ford said last night's foul weather was brought about by a trough moving north over the South Island and into the lower part of the North Island.

"Ahead of that trough we've had pretty strong winds and to the south of the South Island there has been some heavy squally showers and we're looking at snow down to 300m in the far south."

Despite high winds overnight, the Fire Service said no crews were called out to any weather-related incidents.

Mr Ford said the Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, Manawatu, Horowhenua and Kapiti Coast received the worst of the winds overnight; the highest gusts recorded were in Cape Tornagain, south of Hawkes Bay, where the winds reached 99 knots (180kmh).

Castlepoint, on the Wairarapa coast, had gusts up to 62 knots (115kmh) and on the Takapau Plains, in northern Hawkes Bay, winds reached 56 knots (104kmh) overnight.

In the South Island, Invercargill airport had gusts of 47 knots (90kmh) and winds or 68 knots (126kmh) were recorded on Stewart Island.

"It has definitely been very windy," Mr Ford said.

"We've had quite a lot of gradient but it has also been enhanced by the fact we've been getting thunderstorms and squally showers rolling through as well."

Mr Ford said the high winds are likely to stick around for the next couple of days, with the weather beginning to clear on Wednesday.

"We are not quite out of the woods yet, it is still going to be windy today. We still have a strong west to southwest flow over us so we can still expect showers, periods of rain in western areas with a few sneaking over to the east at times."