DANGEROUS GLOBAL WARMING ALERT!
News article from the Nelson Mail.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/5336024/Motuekas-first-snow-in-several-decades
and this excerpt from the NZ Herald.
"
Yesterday saw the most widespread snow since 1995, with snow driven by a cold southerly falling from the southern tip of the South Island to Waikato, including in unusual spots such as Nelson, Palmerston North and the Kaimai Ranges near Tauranga.
The snow blanketed Christchurch in white.
The city had the heaviest snowfall, dumps of 30cm and 15cm disrupting electricity, transport, health and education services.
The University of Canterbury reopened again this morning at 11am after closing yesterday. Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology remains closed for a second day.
Orion Energy said damage to overhead lines cut power to at least 2000 Christchurch homes. Power has now been restored to almost the entire network, with only a handful of Tai Tapu customers still without power this morning.
Elective surgery and outpatient clinics at Christchurch Hospital were cancelled.
The St John ambulance service was called to 24 incidents in the South Island - eight in Christchurch - in which people injured themselves by falling on ice or snow.
Bus services have also been affected, with many runs cancelled. Metro hope to get some buses back on the road from 11am.
Later in the day, the cold air moved north, bringing snow flurries to Wellington. Some snowflakes drifted on to downtown Lambton Quay.
MetService said Greytown, in Wairarapa, had its first snow in 70 years.
Weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said the record cold was caused by a southerly push arriving at the coldest time of year and in an uninterrupted flow from the Antarctic.
"The coldest days usually come in late July," he said.
"But what is unusual is that ... this cold air has managed to bring snow to widespread areas ... and to places that haven't seen it for 15 to 20 years or more."
Federated Farmers adverse events spokesman David Rose said fortunately the snow did not come during lambing or calving.
"It's winter and spring that concern us the most," he told Radio New Zealand.
"Winter [weather] in winter is okay and we do have plans in place."
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said the temperature at a weather station in Whangaparaoa, north of Auckland, dropped to 4.5C.
Dr Griffiths said that the last time it snowed in Auckland, in June 1976, the temperature was between 4C and 5C.
BIG CHILL
* First snow in Greytown, Wairarapa, since the 1940s.
* 45cm of snow in central Christchurch.
* Light snow in Nelson, Motueka, and Wellington.
* Airports, roads, hospitals closed, power cut.
* Coldest July day on record in Banks Peninsula (-1.2C).
* 12cm of new snow at Turoa skifield; -10C on upper slopes."
Those kiwi fools! If only they had left carbon alone all this could have been averted.