Inland Buller, Tasman, inland Otago and Queenstown are all expected to get snow between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.
Further north, it’s been a freezing morning for Wellington with planes and trains delayed as frost crept across the capital.
Wellingtonians awoke to a frigid 2C, with frost blanketing much of the city.
MetService meteorologist April Clark told the Herald it was cold in the central city but further afield in Wainuiomata, people would be even colder as they reached a bone-chilling –0.3 overnight.
Porirua had a similar level of cold with the lowest temperature brushing –0.2.
Clark said early morning shift workers in the MetService office had a rough start to their morning as the train lines had iced over.
“It is definitely colder than average – August overnight lows last year were 7.2, so this is well below that but obviously the whole point of an average is you get some above, some below. This is significantly below the average but we would expect cold nights like that around this time.”
Several roads in the Wellington region have now been issued with snowfall warnings including the Remutaka Hill Rd and the Desert Rd.
The Remutakas are expected to get 4 to 6 cm of snow settled on the road on Thursday morning, and the Desert Road will get similar.
The Napier-Taupo highway will also get a dusting with 2 to 6cm forecast for Thursday afternoon.
Clark said the coldest place in the North Island overnight was eastern Rangitaiki in the Central Plateau at –6.5.
Masterton hit –2.4 overnight which is the coldest night it has had so far this year.
As well as the train delays, a 6am flight out of Wellington was delayed this morning because of ice on the plane.
There will be little respite from the cold throughout the week as an unsettled southwesterly flow moves across the country with a succession of fronts bringing a continuous influx of cold air from the south.
This will bring a period of rain, with snow falling to low levels in the south and east of the South Island, as well as central and southern parts of the North Island - good news for ski fields, but make sure to check the road conditions before heading out as snow is likely to affect high country roads.
