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Source: ONE News -
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According to New Zealand climate experts, the month of October was the coldest the country has had since the end of World War II.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research (NIWA) had to go back 64 years in the record books to find a chillier one.
In October, spring is meant to have well and truly sprung but Mother Nature seems to have missed the memo this year.
Instead she handed out weather more suited to the depths of winter and it didn't go unnoticed by the population.
It was so cold that the average temperature for the month was a shivery 10.6 degrees, one and a half degrees below the October norm.
Its something the nation has not experienced since 1945.
"We've had a month of southerlies, just sheer cold southerlies and a couple of unseasonable late snowfalls," says NIWA spokesperson Georgina Griffiths.
One of those southerlies hit the central North Island early in the month stranding hundreds of unexpecting motorists on the Napier-Taupo road
Hawke's Bay farmers were left counting the cost of the late snowfall; days later it was the South Island's turn.
"In all but the far north, actually Northland, Auckland extremely cold, record cold or near record October temperatures throughout New Zealand," says Griffiths.
But NIWA says over the next three months normal temperatures will return to most parts of the country although the South Island could still be a bit chilly.
Hopefully the country will be safe from snowfalls in October for another 60 or so years.
