Temperatures in parts of the country crashed by 15C to 20C in a matter of hours this week - but the mid-spring polar snap is soon expected to rebound back to warmer temperatures within days. An anomaly observed here led to the polar jet stream - that's a band of fast-flowing, narrow air currents circulating high in the atmosphere - being pushed further south, toward Antarctica. "It's taken a very loopy pathway, all the way toward the South Pole, and then directly up into New Zealand," he said. Not too often does the polar jet stream follow such a loopy pathway from Antarctica to Aotearoa New Zealand... pic.twitter.com/bfxgwnWw8y — NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) October 5, 2022Still, Noll said it was unlikely this event, dramatic as it was, would greatly skew this month's overall average.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 06, 2022 20:51 UTC