Snow dump a welcome start for school holiday skiers and snowboarders
Sunday, 27 September 2020
This week’s weather bomb is a brilliant start to the school holidays for Kiwi skiers, southern skifield operators say.
So much snow fell in Queenstown, one man stepped out of his house, jumped on his snowboard and headed into town on Monday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was trapped in Invercargill after flights were cancelled due to the snow.
The Labour leader and her entourage were travelling to Dunedin to try to get a flight to Auckland, a spokesman said, as flights from Invercargill had been cancelled due to the snow.
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The snow came from a “weather bomb” or “bomb cyclone”, which brought spring snow to parts of the South Island.
This type of storm occurs when low pressure strengthens at a pace of 24 hectopascals (hPa) in 24 hours, according to Niwa. Hectopascals is the unit used to measure the range of air pressures that occur naturally in the atmosphere.
Flights resumed at Queenstown Airport at 3pm and flights have also resumed at Invercargill Airport.
Cardrona general manager Bridget Legnasky said about 40cm of fresh snow had landed at the field, near Wānaka, on Monday and more might be coming.
'It's absolutely brilliant. We couldn't think of anything better,' she said.
The weather was forecast to improve from Wednesday and there would be some great spring skiing, she said.
Cardrona and the nearby Remarkables ski area were closed on Monday due to the large snow dump and high winds.
Remarkables ski area manager Ross Lawrence said about 50cm of new snow landed on the field in the last 36 hours, and he was expecting more.
Canterbury’s Mt Hutt ski area manager James McKenzie said the mountain had had about 10 cm of fresh snow by Monday.
There would be 'pretty good' skiing from Tuesday lunchtime through to Friday, with some more 'scratchy' weather moving in on the weekend.
The Tūroa and Whakapapa ski areas in the North Island were closed on Monday due to gale force winds, heavy rain and storm damage to the snow pack.
Snow fell around Queenstown overnight but had not settled in low-lying areas due to the warm ground temperature, according to a Queenstown Lakes District Council report.
Queenstown man Tom Woodward, who lives in the elevated suburb of Fernhill, said people were cheering as he snowboarded past buses and stuck cars this morning.
Woodward had planned to head up to The Remarkables to take advantage of the fresh powder, but when he saw it was closed, he had to adjust his plans.
He said the snow was “really belting down” about 8am, building up to about 30 centimetres high in places, though it was slightly lower on the warm roads.
Woodward grabbed his gear and started snowboarding from his front doorstep, sliding past buses and crashed cars and police officers trying to help those who were stuck. He could not make it all the way into town as there was not enough snow lower down because of the warm road.
He said he was primed to get up to the skifield on Tuesday, which could be the best day of the season depending on the wind.
North Island National MPs Mark Mitchell and Tim van de Molan spent an unusually snowy morning trapped in Queenstown.
Mitchell's morning flight was cancelled and van de Molan was waiting to hear if his afternoon flight would depart Queenstown as the snow started to abate.
Van den Molan and Southland National candidate Joseph Mooney spent part of the morning pushing cars stuck on the road near Arrowtown.
'Tim is from the Waikato … he was loving it,' Mooney said.
The Crown Range between Queenstown and Wānaka was closed overnight, but reopened on Monday after being ploughed.
However, another 10cm of snow was expected on the road during the day so all cars needed to carry chains. Chains should also be carried on SH6 between Haast and Makarora.
Road traffic over the major alpine passes was also disrupted by snow.
The Lewis Pass (SH7) between Canterbury and the West Coast was closed about 6.30am on Monday because of snow but reopened shortly before 10.30am.
SH6 between Franz Josef and Fox Glacier was closed about 10am because of snow and a truck that needed to be removed. It was expected to reopen at midday.
In Auckland, the NZ Transport Agency urged motorists to take care when travelling over the damaged Harbour Bridge on Monday and Tuesday as wind gusts of 80kmh were forecast.
MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said Wellington and the Wairarapa region would be hit with northwest gales on Monday afternoon, and a period of heavy rain was expected.
In a statement, Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office (WREMO) said large swells were expected for Wellington and Wairarapa on Monday.
Waves up to 4 metres in height were expected on Tuesday evening, eventually easing to 3.5m on Wednesday before easing even further later in the week.
A watch was also in place for large swells between Paekākāriki and Raumati South as there was a forecast of northwest swells reaching between 3m and 3.5m in height, WREMO said.
The swells were expected to rise up to 4.45m on Monday afternoon before easing on Monday evening.
Thunderstorms, wind and more snow are expected across New Zealand during the next 48hours as two fronts move up the country.
Metservice meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said the front that brought snow to parts of Southland and the Queenstown Lakes on Monday morning reached the top of the South Island by 2pm.
Colder air behind the front would bring snow showers to more of Otago over the afternoon.
There was also a heavy snow warning for the Buller and Nelson regions for Monday night and Tuesday .
Strong wind warnings were in place for Canterbury, the West Coast and Nelson.
Lower parts of the North Island would also be subject to strong winds on Monday afternoon and into the evening.
Heavy rain was forecast in all parts of the North Island except Hawkes Bay and Gisborne.
Thunderstorms were possible in the central Wairarapa, Taranaki and Kapati.
The stormy weather would continue into Tuesday in the North Island and there was a snow warning for the Desert Road.
Showers and snow falls would continue in the South Island with snow levels as low as 200m, particularly in Southland.
Day time temperatures could be 3C or 4C in Gore and Invercargill and reach a maximum of 5C in Wanaka and Queenstown.
'As [Tuesday] goes on we do see some fine breaks starting to break through,' she said.
From Wednesday the weather should start to clear.
The weather conditions were not entirely unusual for the time of year, she said.
'But a storm of this magnitude is definitely notable.'