A polar blast is coming to New Zealand with forecasts for more sea-level snow and wind-chill temperatures dropping to as low as -10C.
New Zealand is on the edges of a major storm forming in the Tasman Sea, with air pressure so low it's described as "right up there with some of the world's largest storms".
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As it deepens over the weekend and next week, WeatherWatch head forecaster Philip Duncan warns it will bring heavy rain, gale-force winds, sub-zero wind chills and low-level snow to the southern South Island.
"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."
Duncan warns this is a "major concern" for farmers who are currently caring for young animals.
"We're really thinking about the South Island and those who are slap-bang in the middle of lambing and calving," he says.
"So a brutally-cold southerly, that's not your friend because of the wind-chill. So it doesn't have to be a storm with gale-force winds for it to be a problem. Light winds with a bitterly cold wind-chill can be deadly for new-born livestock."
And South Island residents should prepare to see snow on their beaches and lawns again.
"Sea-level snow is possible but even if not, low-level snow to 100 or 200m looks likely," Duncan says.
"This is likely to hit Fiordland, that south-west corner. It could reach Southland. There's a similar story about Otago, but it might start to dry out."
Duncan says this normally only happens once a year or two, although in some years areas can see low-level snow multiple times, and adds more time is needed before the exact areas the snow will fall are known.
A MetService meteorologist told Newshub Sunday's snow in Invercargill was "definitely not a regular occurrence".
Records from between 1948 and 1980 show an average of five snow days per year for the city, and MetService says nowadays snow is probably even less frequent.
Newshub.
