Highways have reopened in the South after snow closed several roads and affected flights. Motorists are still urged to take care as the wintry blast eases.
Heavy snow warnings were this morning extended, and services were disrupted at Dunedin and Queenstown airports.
MetService extended its heavy snow warning to 1pm for Southland, Stewart Island, Clutha, Dunedin, Central Otago south of Alexandra, the Southern Lakes District south of Queenstown, and Fiordland from Te Anau southwards. The previous warning was until 9am today.
The forecaster said these areas could expect a further 5 to 10cm of snow above about 200 metres, in addition to what had already fallen, with lesser amounts down to sea level.
- Check highway conditions here
- Check Dunedin Airport flights
- Check Queenstown Airport flights
- Slideshow: Spring snow in South
At 12.30pm snow was still falling to sea level in Dunedin, and settling in some inland areas, but by mid-afternoon the weather was clearing as the polar blast moved on.
State Highway 1 between Dunedin and Palmerston - including the city's Northern Motorway - was closed overnight and for much of this morning, but reopened around 11am.
Earlier, MetService said snow flurries were expected to affect the Dunedin motorway, the Crown Range Rd linking Queenstown and Wanaka, and the Milford Road in Southland (SH94) though to 6pm. It advised that by 6.40pm, these major roads were now clear and warnings had been lifted.
Other state highways have also reopened, including SH85 Palmerston-Kyeburn, SH87 Outram-Kyeburn and SH93 between Mataura and Clinton.
Nicole Felts, Waka Kotahi Journey Manager for Otago and Southland, this afternoon said crews had made good progress in getting roads reopened but urged motorists to "please keep on taking care, particularly as night falls and again tomorrow morning, depending on overnight temperatures".
Dunedin getting back to normal
The Dunedin City Council’s public facilities and cultural attractions will return to normal hours on Friday, but motorists are still being urged to drive cautiously.
Roads had been treacherous this morning due to snow and contractors were out early using ploughs, graders and broom trucks to clear it in hill suburbs and rural areas.
Local roads closed in the morning included Three Mile Hill Rd, Mt Cargill Rd and Blueskin Rd, but they have since reopened.
No further weather-related closures were expected overnight, but contractors would be on standby to respond if needed, a spokesman for the council said late this afternoon.
"Motorists should still drive cautiously as there may still be areas of snow on the shoulders of roads."
Moana Pool, the Dunedin City Library, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden and Olveston, among other facilities and attractions, will all open as normal tomorrow morning.
So, too, will the DCC’s Civic Centre Plaza Customer Service Centre and election office, as well as the Green Island landfill, and kerbside collection services are also expected to run as normal.
Collections scheduled for Mosgiel, Abbotsford and Fairfield on Thursday morning, which had to be postponed due to the snow, will go ahead on Saturday instead.
Orbus said its services are resuming after being suspended for much of this morning.
Care needed in regions
The Queenstown Lakes District Council this morning said there was black ice across the district and the roads were "like skating rinks".
The Crown Range Road is open and chains were no longer essential, but it was a good idea to carry them just in case, it said.
Wanaka woke to a particularly chilly day as weather conditions caused a power outage from 8am to 10am.
The Clutha District Council reported widespread snow across the district this morning, making driving conditions treacherous, and encouraged people to delay their travel.
"The usual high-altitude roads have a very thick covering of snow and there is a good amount of snow in West Otago, Hillend and Waipori."
However, by late afternoon the council said the snow was starting to melt and most roads were now passable - with care.
"Please use caution driving overnight due to the cold temperatures, slush and surface water on the roads. There are still some snow drifts on roadsides as well as water tables affected by the snow.
"Snow melt may cause surface flooding in places and some waterways may swell."
The council's contractor would be ready to inspect roads and clear snow tomorrow morning, if required.
St John Coastal Otago Area Operations Manager Doug Third said the snow had not significantly impacted services in Otago, although the closure of State Highway 87 earlier in the day meant that a helicopter had to be dispatched to a patient in Middlemarch.
Snow not unprecedented
MetService communications meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the snow today was unusual, but not completely unprecedented. In September 2010, an unusually heavy spring snowfall resulted in the roof of the Invercargill stadium collapsing.
"If we want to talk about spring we can say that these things do happen," Mr Ferris said.
Since MetService had moved to automated data collection rather than manual observations in the 1990s, it was hard to say how much of a precedent there was for snow settling in October.
Previous instances were unlikely but could not be ruled out.
The cold snap was unusual, and the risk posed by the severe weather would continue to reduce throughout October and into November.
The good news was that temperatures would still be chilly tomorrow but likely to return to normal temperatures on the weekend, Mr Ferris said.
Niwa meteorologist Chris Brandolino said there were likely to be more snow showers over eastern portions of Otago today.
"So Balclutha, Dunedin, they'll be dealing with snow showers, cold temperatures."
The core of the coldest air was likely to move over the South Island later today. And then as that core of the coldest air shifts farther east things will very slowly, I do emphasise slowly, improve today but a pretty windy cold day for the entire country."
Many people could expect sub-zero temperatures this morning with conditions feeling like mid-winter, he said.
"And then we have gusty south to south-west winds and that means sub-zero wind chill."
Temperatures like this would not be out of place in July, but it was unusually cold for early October, he said.
Christchurch got some small snow fall, but nearby Banks Peninsula was were the snow was most evident, Brandolino said.
The cold conditions were unlikely to last. "By early next week, say Monday, it's very possible that places that are dealing with snow, well everyone's dealing with the cold temperatures - places that dealt with snow this morning, for example Christchurch, they could be in the lower 20s."
Records broken
The maximum daytime temperature recorded at Dunedin Airport yesterday was 7.1decC, which was the third lowest since records began in 1972.
‘‘What that's telling us is that this whole event has been unusually cold. Not quite record-breaking cold, but it's not normal to see an October maximum temperature be that cold,’’ Mr Ferris said.
A few places had broken records for their lowest recorded temperatures in the month of October.
Wanaka airport had recorded a minimum temperature of -3decC this morning, which was a record October low since records began in 1992.
At Westport aerodrome, a reading of 0decC was the lowest October temperature since records started in 1966 and the area had also recorded its lowest morning temperature this year.
- wyatt.ryder@odt.co.nz/ODT Online/RNZ
