Heavy Blanket of Snow Expected to Hit NZ

A heavy blanketing of snow is on the way and has a large chunk of southern New Zealand, as well as the central North Island, in its sights, the Metservice says.

The national weather service last night posted a severe weather watch on its website for the Canterbury Plains, including Christchurch, as well as Central Otago, Southern Lakes, Dunedin, Clutha and Southland.

The watch was for heavy snow about eastern parts of the South Island from Wednesday until Friday.

MetService meteorologist Chelsea Glue said the snow will be "pretty huge".

Snowfalls could reach warning levels above 400 metres for inland Southland, Otago and South Canterbury on Wednesday, and possibly to low levels in Otago the following day.

There could also be snow to low levels in Canterbury and Kaikoura on Thursday and Friday.

A severe weather outlook also posted to the website last night said the low could also possibly deliver heavy snow above 700 metres about Tongariro National Park and Taihape on Saturday.

Metservice meteorologist Tom Adams said the watches and severe weather outlooks were about keeping people informed of what might happen.

Read the full report at nzherald.co.nz