Could portend a cold and snowy winter
The city rose to a bone-chilling 4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, though it felt like -1C, the MetService said.
Christchurch weather expert Bob Crowder said the last time Canterbury had snow in April was in 1992.
Crowder said the temperature on that April morning was a similar 2 degrees.
And that chilly April went on to herald one of Canterbury’s coldest winters marked by a massive snowfall in August which damaged buildings and killed more than one million stock.
Snow also settled into many other areas, bringing “mayhem” to the roads.
The early snowfall covered mountains and roads and sent temperatures plummeting.
Dunedin reached a high of only 5C, while Christchurch managed 12C.
MetService forecaster Karl Loots said a cold air system moving up the country could bring snow flurries down to 200m on Banks Peninsula overnight Monday.
Canterbury’s Porters Ski Area receiving 10 centimetres of snow overnight Sunday. Another 10cm was expected overnight Monday.
Marketing manager Dan Walbeoff said it was unusual to receive so much snow this early in the year.
Heavy snowfall warnings remained in place for Southland, southern Fiordland and southern Otago until 9am on Tuesday.
See several photos:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/67717208/Wintry-blast-hits-Christchurch-with-first-April-snow-since-1992
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/67708001/snow-sweeps-across-southern-south-island
Thanks to Jonny Wilson for these links