Make sure you wrap up warm for the next few weeks - frigid temperatures are set to make August the coldest month of the year.
The warning comes as heavy snow bears down with a large chunk of southern New Zealand, as well as the central North Island, in its sights, MetService says.
The national weather service last night posted a severe weather watch on its website for Dunedin, Central Otago, Southern Lakes, Clutha, Southland, and the Canterbury Plains, including Christchurch.
#Dunedin, #Queenstown, Southland regional forecast. Snow levels lower to 200 metres tomorrow https://t.co/V44lJCbjtV pic.twitter.com/XuFVool0aj
— Chester Lampkin (@chesterlampkin) August 2, 2016
The watch was for heavy snow about eastern parts of the South Island from tomorrow until Friday.
MetService meteorologist Chelsea Glue said the snow will be "pretty huge".
"There's a watch out already, it'll be quite nasty and quite severe."
Snowfalls could reach warning levels above 400 metres for inland Southland, Otago and South Canterbury tomorrow, and possibly to low levels in Otago the following day.
There could also be snow to low levels in Canterbury and Kaikoura on Thursday and Friday.
"A complex low pressure system is expected to move on to the country from the south Tasman Sea during Wednesday, then move slowly northeastwards across New Zealand during Thursday and Friday, bringing rain to many parts of the country, with snow lowering to low levels about the east of the South Island."
A severe weather outlook also posted to the website last night said the low could also possibly deliver heavy snow above 700 metres about Tongariro National Park and Taihape on Saturday.
Forecasters are also keeping an eye on the potential for heavy rain in Westland, Buller and the north-west ranges of Nelson.
In addition, easterly winds are expected to become strong for the lower parts of the North Island from Napier to Wellington during the same period.
Metservice meteorologist Tom Adams said the watches and severe weather outlooks were about keeping people informed of what might happen.
"This far out we have to look at possibilities. A lot of the things we are looking at show the amount of snowfall is outside the averages for those areas.
"It's a significant snow event but we get one or two of these every year. It's not going to be something we haven't seen before."
Colder weather is also on the way during August, typically the coldest month of the year, according to Weatherwatch.
Southerly winds will bring low temperatures, Auckland expecting highs of 12C over the next two weeks.
Further south, Wellington will be even colder with highs of less than 10C, and Dunedin will have sleet and freezing rain in the next 10 days.
Canterbury will get rain in the first half of the month, as a low pressure system drifts towards New Zealand from the Tasman Sea.
