Wintry weather forecast across country for weekend
New Zealand is bracing for a severe wintry weekend featuring polar air, heavy snow, and potential flooding. Road closures and weather warnings have been issued across multiple regions, including the South Island and central North Island.
Why it matters
Extreme weather events pose significant risks to public safety, infrastructure, and transportation networks, requiring timely public alerts.
It is shaping up to be a wintry weekend with a blast of polar air set to bring snow, severe frost and icy conditions across parts of the country. Road snowfall warnings have been issued for all the country’s alpine passes and the Dunedin to Waitati Highway (State Highway 1) from Friday night and into Saturday. Snow showers were expected to affect the Dunedin highway above 300 metres overnight until 8am on Saturday. Southland’s Milford Road (State Highway 94) is closed on Friday night from East Gate (Hollyford) to Donne River (Westgate) as up to 15cm of snow was forecast including around the Homer Tunnel area. Milford Road Alliance said the highway was expected to reopen before 10am on Saturday once snow was cleared and any ice managed.
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