The South Island will get a rough ride this weekend, while the North Island escapes mostly unscathed, a NIWA forecaster says
Ben Noll told The AM Show a snowy weekend is forecast down south, although it's predicted for the ski fields rather than the beaches.
- Winter set to end with chilly Antarctic blast
- Wild, cold, windy weekend on the way
- Blast of strong winds, hail, snow to strike New Zealand
"We're not talking snow to sea level or anything like that. It is a bit raw in Christchurch, Dunedin.
"The North Island? Pretty mild. In the east, I'd say Hawke's Bay upper teens, near 20 degrees so not too bad there."
Noll said the rest of the North Island will have a showery, breezy weekend. He's adamant the country won't be experiencing the massive storm forecast earlier in the week.
"There's a weather system moving across the Tasman Sea, for the time of year par for the course and next week is not looking particularly stormy either.
"It's August, it's winter."
WeatherWatch forecaster Philip Duncan told Newshub earlier in the week heavy rain, gale-force winds, sub-zero wind chills and low-level snow was on the way.
"At the moment the air temperatures high next week in Queenstown on Sunday is 3C and this drops down to -1C," Duncan told Newshub.
"When you add the wind-chill, it could make it feel more like -8C,-9C, -10C in some areas."
Earlier in the week, WeatherWatch said the low-pressure system headed towards New Zealand was "right up there with some of the world's largest storms".
Butt Noll said he wouldn't go that far.
"There's a couple of different models and sometimes one of those models might show a rogue solution, but we want consistency.
"If there's a consistent forecast for something to occur then that's when you start to talk about it, but if it just happens once on one model on one run then it's probably best left unsaid."
Kiwis will have to wait for the weekend to see which forecaster got it right.
Newshub.
