ANDY MACDONALD/Things
By Wednesday, New Plymouth will barely reach the teens in temperature and as low as two degrees at night.
A cold front sweeping across the country will bite hard in Taranaki, sending the forecast for mercury plummeting.
NIWA meteorologist Chris Brandalino said the region will see an unusual cold spell over the next four to six days, with some rural areas reaching a minimum of zero degrees later in the week.
“When you go to a cafe or have a pint in a bar and people talk about the weather, it’s the cold and the cold.
“We had such a warm July and early August, people are going to take note of the unusual cold.”
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Brandlino said the weather was the result of torrential rain and cold temperatures that have hit the South Island this week and made their way into the country.
“Our air comes from the south, which is the source of our air, so it’s no wonder it gets cold.”
But after a week in the cold, Brandalino said there would be a shift and we’d have the “arrival of an unusual heat” around this time next week.
“It will feel like winter for the next 4-6 days and become a cold snap, but when we arrive next Tuesday, we’ll be on the other end of the spectrum.”
Although the region will be wet on Monday and Tuesday, clear skies are expected from Wednesday through the weekend.
But the cold won’t go away, with highs just barely breaking into the teens, if at all, and nighttime lows of two to four degrees forecast for New Plymouth and Stratford and some rural areas seeing a minimum of zero as of Wednesday.
Despite the temperature drop, Stratford Mountain Club spokesman Rob Needs said the current snow on the mountain was too wet to operate the ski lift.
Needs, however, said he would keep a close eye on snowfall for the next 24 to 48 hours.
“It’s just cold enough for it to snow, but we don’t want it just cold enough, we want it to be about five degrees colder so it comes down drier.
“The ingredients are there, we just need the freezer temperature.”