The Country 19/08/25: Phil Duncan talks to Jamie Mackay

Monday’s resident weather expert on a Tuesday reports on bitter wind chills, lower snow flurries, then frosts again. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's Monday's resident weather expert. Couldn't get him yesterday. We
always get our man. He's here on a Tuesday. Phil
Duncan from weather Watch. We've had a bitterly cold blast
at the bottom of the South Island. I'm not sure
how far up the country it's gone, Phil, but it
is mid August. We expect that the payback is a
big high is about to pluck it south over the country.
Am I going to get fine frosty weather? I can

(00:20):
live with that?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Good. Good to be with you again.
We've got a polar airflow moving up across the entire country.
The main pulse of that cold air run about lunchtime
today's moving through Canterbury and up towards the top of
the South Island, clears over the North Island tonight with
more of a southerly changed westerly is ahead of that
to the North Island with a few thunderstorms today. But

(00:42):
you're right burg high pressure coming in ten forty Hector pascals.
It's going to park itself right smack bang over the
top of the South Island as we go into the weekend,
which means it's fairly cold and fairly dry wet weather.
Today we'll linger especially in North Canterbury, before clearing the
South Island and then yet at big high rolls on
in for most of New Zealand. But the caveat is

(01:05):
that if you live in Hawks Bay, maybe parts of
wided Upper Gisbon tightarter the areas that showery southerly and
the clouds could linger on a bit longer for you,
if it's any consolation. Australia's East coast is in the
same kind of cloudy cold setup, but high pressure air
is coming in for the weekend. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
The one industry that will be very thankful for the
sweather at the moment is the ski industry. I was
in coins Down over the weekend Phil Duncan and the
remarkables were almost totally bereft of snow.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, there's been a lot of snow falling in Australia
this year, very very wintry weather in the southeast of Australia.
In fact, here's a temperature this morning. It was minus
nine at Threadbow, the ski village, and at the same
latitude on the west coast in Perth and Granted Perths
at sea level it was twenty degrees, so there was
basically a thirty degree temperature difference on the same latitude

(01:56):
across Australia. This morning, very cold air stuck in the
southeast Divassie, giving them snow event after snow event. In
New Zealand, we've been on the warmer edge of that
most of the winter. Now we've had cold airflows. But
even the cold that's coming through today is not what
I would call brutally cold. I mean it's tough for
newborn lambs. That don't get me wrong. It's a real
problem in fact, especially around places like Hawks Bay for

(02:18):
the next couple of days. But the temperatures are not
that brutal in New Zealand this winter. I've been gown.
It's been colder than average this winter, but I don't
think it's been extreme. We haven't been seeing lots of
minus tens or fifteens, for example.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Bill Duncan, thanks for your time. It was worth waiting
a day for that. That was quite brilliant.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Here you go, Thank you very much.