Northern New Zealand shut down in the first snowfall in 40 years
| Published on August 16, 2011 4:15 am PT – By Jim Duran – Writer – Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller |
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(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Let us move out of the United States to down South. New Zealand’s Northern Island has flights grounded, roads closed, and power outages in the first snowfall in 40 years.
Blizzards hit the South Island before moving northward into the more populated North Island.
“This is the first snowfall in over 40 years for this region,” said TheWeatherSpace Senior Meteorologist Kevin Martin. “Looking at the upper air charts this cold spell will last for another couple of days, till around Wednesday night.”
Christchurch, an area plagued by major earthquakes in the last year, was among the populated zones to be affected by the snowfall.
“Usually rare events around the world such as this one and the new tropical storm record (article here) means that an usual pattern will hit this Winter across the world not seen in around 50 years,” said Martin.
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