What happened to winter?
A MetService meteorologist says Queenstown’s average temperature for this month is running almost 1.5°C above average.
The average temperature for the resort through July has been 5.4°C, up from 4.3°C in July last year.
The town could also exceed last July’s 112.8 sunshine hours, with three more days left in the month.
While June’s average temperature was below average — registering an average of 4°C, compared to 4.9°C for the same month last year, this June was also sunnier in Queenstown — 133 hours compared to 104 hours in 2022.
Regarding rainfall, the total in Queenstown for June and July in2022 was 187.4mm and, to date, precipitation had only reached 124.22mm over the past two months.
While another dusting of snow came through overnight on Wednesday, MetService was not predicting snowmageddon any time soon.
"An overall west to southwest flow is expected to persist the rest of the month and Queenstown is fairly sheltered in this flow, so while the mountains may see more snow, it is unlikely that you’ll see it in the town."
