KEY POINTS:
The wind will still remain today but compared to yesterday's big blast it'll still be a bit of breather. Most urban centres will see blustery conditions today but gales aren't in the picture. Click here for the stats on yesterday's storm.
However the rest of the school holidays look pretty average, in my view, for those in the south and west of both islands because of this nagging wind. A strong westerly or south westerly flow will cover the entire country until Friday with showers along the entire west coast and about Southland. Places like Wellington will be relatively dry but also quite windy.
In Auckland the real shock to the system will be a shot of cold air that will arrive overnight Wednesday/Thursday morning creating a cold wind chill throughout Thursday that will remind us all that winter really has only just ended. This morning our Queenstown Weather Watch reporter, Craig Ferguson, reported that 10cms of snow had fallen overnight on the Remarkables and Cardrona.
The wintry air during Thursday will keep daytime highs to single digits in places like Queenstown and perhaps Southland with temperatures not likely to make it into the teens across the South Island and Wellington.
Further north, while it'll be a little warmer than the south, the south westerly will create a significant wind chill in western areas - such as Auckland - and although highs will range between 13 and 16 it'll probably feel more like 10 or 11 degrees.
If you're wanting dry, warm, conditions for the kids then you'll need to head to eastern areas - such as the Bay of Islands, eastern parts of Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, and Gisborne and Hawkes Bay.
I've fielded a lot of questions lately about the weather for Labour Weekend but to be honest it's still too far out to have any sort of accuracy (in Spring even 4 or 5 days out can be pushing it!) - should have a better idea by Friday next week but the odds of having winds from the westerly quarter still remain high - that favours drier, warmer, weather in the east - but not so positive for the west. That's just a run down of the current weather pattern of course - so we'll keep our fingers crossed that a nice big high will move in then!
By the way - speaking of nice big highs - this weekend isn't looking too bad at this stage. A large anticyclone (high) drifting in from the Tasman Sea should settle conditions across New Zealand both Saturday and Sunday.
Finally - if you have any topics you'd like covered in these blogs please email me (philipduncan@radionetwork.co.nz) or post a comment below!
Philip Duncan
Pictured above: High winds in Masterton toppled a massive oak tree at Matahiwi Road which narrowly missed the house. Farm worker George Bremner (pictured) had to tie a wire rope to the tree to anchor it to a tractor. Photo / Lynda Feringa
For the latest weather news keep up to date with The Radio Network's new Weather Watch Centre or the NZ Herald weather section.
