Spring Storm Brings Snow to New Zealand Beaches and Travel Chaos | World News

A spring weather bomb has hit New Zealand, closing roads, dumping snow on beaches and prompting dozens of flight cancellations.

The country’s meteorological service described the storm as “the worst of the season” and said it was the result of a low-pressure system moving across the country from Antarctica. The system was “very unusual in the extent of severe weather” and was a significant weather event, a statement from the service said.

The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research said parts of the South Island could feel as cold as -20 ° C on Monday and Tuesday.

Snow has fallen at the Queenstown resort, where most flights in and out of the resort were canceled on Monday. The gusts also fell to sea level in Wanaka, Dunedin and Te Anau.

On Stewart Island in the lower part of the country, it was snowing on Oban Beach, the Met service reported. In Southland and Fiordland, severe weather coincided with the calving season.

Snow was also forecast for the beaches of Southland, Otago and Fiordland for two days, but should disappear by Wednesday.

Multiple weather advisories and warnings were issued for the lower half of the South Island as well as the capital city of Wellington, where northwesterly gale force winds of up to 120 km / ph were forecast. Hurricane force winds could extend as far as Napier, on the east coast of the North Island.

The storm was unusually severe for the spring, the Met service said, particularly as the 2020 winter was New Zealand’s warmest on record.

Niwa’s forecaster Ben Noll said that seven of New Zealand’s 10 warmest winters on record had occurred since 2000: “It just shows the trajectory we are on.”