A wintry blast has hit the South Island, bringing snow to Southland and Dunedin.
Heavy snow was falling as polar air swiped through the lower South Island, Weather Watch head analyst Philip Duncan said.
Snow was heavy enough to make snowballs, he said.
The air temperature in Dunedin at 3pm was between 0C and 3C and wind chills were as extreme as -6C in some coastal Otago areas as the polar southerly kicked in.
"The polar air is affecting Southland and Otago today, and some of the mountains further north, but generally the powerful westerly blast over the rest of the nation is stopping this southerly from heading any further north," Duncan said.
"While it's bitterly cold for some in the south today, tomorrow the airflow changes and by Monday morning much of the air flow across the country will be coming back from Australia again."
Snow finally falling here in Normanby, Dunedin! pic.twitter.com/Bi7un8Yi8P
— Matiu Workman (@matiuworkman) July 24, 2016
Meanwhile in the North Island, westerly winds were continuing to howl across parts of the country with gales spreading as far north as Auckland and hurricane force winds continuing to slam parts of the lower North Island.
At 3.50pm today, gusts of 134km/h/h were affecting exposed parts of coastal Wairarapa.
Gusts in Wellington were recorded at 100km/h at 12pm today but have now dropped to under 75km/h.
Masterton has had gusts of 115km/h today and areas such as Manawatu, Horowhenua, coastal Marlborough, Taranaki and Hawkes Bay recorded gusts of 90km/h.
Auckland City was currently experiencing gusts between 70 and 90km/h.
Duncan said this would make driving difficult especially on more busy and exposed highways like the harbour bridge or coastal motorways.
Temperatures in Auckland dropped five degrees in just eight minutes from 17 to 12 degrees early this afternoon as a burst of torrential downpours and gale force winds hit the city.
The wiild weather has brought down power lines and trees.
A northern fire communications spokeswoman said the Fire Service had received calls throughout the day from Warkworth to Turangi.
"It's been steady all day."
It was a similar story in the lower North Island as the Fire Service received about 50 calls since 8am today.
"We've received a number of calls in the Wairarapa region, Masterton, a few in Wellington, Wanganui and Palmerston North," central fire communications shift manager David Meikle said.
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