New Zealand shivers on coldest morning of the year

It's a chilly morning across Aotearoa with just a handful of main centres recording temperatures in double digits.

The Desert Rd recorded the coldest temperature in the country with a frigid –4.5 degrees this morning, and Taumarunui followed close behind with –3.5.

This morning was the coldest this year for many places across the country – Christchurch and Blenheim were both at 0 degrees by 7am, and in many centres in the North Island it wasn't much warmer.

Masterton and Palmerston North were also at zero, with Wellington just 6 degrees warmer.

Winter is coming 🥶

This morning is the coldest for many places across Aotearoa so far this year!

The central Te Ika-a-Maui was the coldest place to be at 7am this morning. The Desert Road got down to -4.3°C, and Taumarunui -3.5°C.

Your temperature at: https://t.co/Yjbq0jxdqz pic.twitter.com/mgcKjemoHp

— MetService (@MetService) May 11, 2022

Moving towards the centre of the North Island, Taupo sat at –2 and Hamilton was another zero.

Auckland wasn't warm either – at 7am the City of Sails was shivering at 7 degrees.

Despite the cold start, much of the country will see sunshine today.

Niwa weather reports the majority of Aotearoa is in for sun with Northland to Wellington expecting fine weather.

However, Otago and Southland are less lucky – the forecast is for mostly cloud, and the occasional shower.

🥶 Coldest of 2022 so far: -4.2˚C at Tūrangi in the Central Plateau...

A min temp of 3.7˚C in Auckland (Māngere) made it the coldest morning since 22 August 2021!

It also dipped to 1.7˚C in Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula & -1.6˚C in Firth of Thames 🧊 pic.twitter.com/XE0TTvAZav

— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) May 11, 2022

Fiordland can also expect some showers throughout the day.

Looking forward to the weekend, Friday will be fine for most but things will sour slightly on Saturday.

There will be showers to the west of the country – from Waikato onwards – and partial cloud everywhere else.

The rain will spread north and on Sunday there will be showers and rain across the country, The South Island will bear the brunt, with rain getting heavy to the west.