Be Safe Everyone: NZ Experiences White-out Weather
Desert Rd in the North Island and eastern part of New Zealand experienced the coldest weather to date as white-out conditions loom all over the region.
Philip Duncan of WeatherWatch reported that the eastern North Island can experience some of the coldest weather of the year, "A low has stalled over the North Island and will remain there for the next few days. It is going to bring rain into places that didn't really get it last week... Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawkes bay, all those areas are going to be stuck with this low for the next few days. It is going to be cold with rain."
Mr Duncan also reported that snow had already closed the Desert Rd in the central North Island with snow to 700m coupled with the white-out conditions.
"You have got a gusty wind blowing snow about and you can't see much. The way the temperatures are the snow could linger. This could be potentially good news for the ski fields in the North Island which have really missed out this weather."
In a report from Nw Zealand Herald, MetService has issued severe warning for people in Hawkes Bay, Taihape and Wairarapa, with heavy rain warnings in place for eastern parts of the North Island.
South Island, around Canterbury and Otago were still the coldest region in the country as of date.
Meanwhile, Dunedin was already covered with snow and police advised commuters to take extreme precautionary method in driving.
According to Senior Sergeant Damion Rangitutua, there were already two cars slipped the road in the Saddle Hill area but there nobody hurt.
Mr Rangitutia warned, "It is very slippery out there so we really advise people to take extra care."
A report from Stuff.co said that Dunedin City Council warned people of "widespread black ice, treacherous conditions. Extreme caution advised."
According to Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross, "It appears to me it's all to do with black ice. There might have been some rain during the night and some frost on top of it. There's a lot of black ice around now."
Four crashes had been responded to by the ambulance service, two in Balcutha, ome at Kurow and one at Evanslade just this morning.
One person was trapped when a car flipped on black ice in the Kurow crash. The person was flown to Dunedin Hospital by helicopter to be given proper medical aid.
According to ambulance southern communications acting team manager John Sneesby, there were other five peole who had suffered minor injury during the crashes.
Heavy rain continued to pour overnight until today in Wellington , causing slipper road to Hutt Rd in the northern Wellington suburb of Ngaio. It was expected to develop about eastern parts of the North Island north of Dannevirke and south of Wairoa and the central ranges eats of Waiouru.
In an interview with radio Live, a truck driver shared that he was among the last half dozen to make it through the desert road overnight. "Really really snowing real bad, couldn't see the road, couldn't read any signs. It was just all totally white."
NZ Transport Agency said that section of the road on State Highway 73 over Arthurs Pass between Otira and Springfield were already closed for towing vehivles.
The agency also advised that caution should be observed when taking the SH8 between Twizel and Fairlie due to ice and on SH1 between Palmerston, north of Dunedin and Gore to the south.