Remembering the 2003 New Zealand Blizzard (credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

DISCUSSION: Although this was not all that long ago, by taking New Zealand weather history back to July 5-7th, 2003, we find ourselves at the occurrence of a fairly historic winter storm with respect to New Zealand weather archives.  In going back to the first week of June 2003, New Zealand experienced one of the country's worst snowstorm in 50 years. Collectively, this snowstorm caused thousands of power outages to homes and businesses and stranding hundreds of motorists. In some areas, up to 12 inches of snow accumulated by the end of storm.  It goes without saying that a winter storm of this magnitude definitely caught people by surprise based on the early Summer-time occurrence of this winter storm.  Note how widespread the snowfall coverage was after this winter storm based on the image captured above (courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory).  In addition, you can also see how some of the brightest white coloring overlaid onto the regional topography was positioned on the eastern slopes of some of the highest terrain along the north-south axis of southern/central New Zealand.

To learn more about this particular New Zealand winter weather event, click on the following link.

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz