It has been a grim past few weeks in the district as low-lying fog swept across most landscapes with accompanying freezing temperatures.
Now though, the high-pressure system that had hung over New Zealand for almost two weeks was finally on its way out, taking Central Otago’s extreme fog and frosty conditions with it, Metservice meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said.
"We’ve had a change of weather regime — that high pressure has now moved off the country and over the weekend we’ve had a little bit of weather moving through the area, in fact most of the country.
She said although high-pressure systems were not unusual at this time of year, the one that settled over the country earlier this month was quite unusual.
It was the strongest in the world at the time, and had set a national mean sea-level pressure record for the month of July of 1045hPa (hectopascals).
Coupled with the Central Otago cold, conditions were ripe for the formation of fog and low clouds, Ms Makgabutlane said.
Temperatures never climbed above zero on some days and then plunged well into the negatives at night, getting down to -6°C in Alexandra.
Alexandra was due to reach double digits from today onwards.
The sun made a welcome appearance for most of yesterday, ending what Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said had been a bleak couple of weeks.
"It’ll lift the spirits of everybody undoubtedly. It does get a little bit hard to cope with psychologically when you don’t see the sun for a couple of weeks.
"The other aspect has been just the danger on the roads with ice and people not putting their lights on when it’s foggy, which still baffles me."
Over the hill in Ophir, farmer Sam Leask said the town had been lucky to escape the fog, but the frost on the air had been the coldest on record in three years.
"Our hardest frost was minus 10.7 [July 15], which is the hardest frost we’ve had.
"We don’t get much colder than that most years. The kids were skating on the duck pond, so that’s quite good."
While many will be relieved to see the end of the frostier conditions, Bannockburn resident and keen curler Gordon Stewart had hoped to see it stick around for a little longer.
"It’s been years since they’ve curled and skated on the Manorburn dam and the curlers went very close to getting the bonspiel."
