2013 New Zealand winter storm [20 June] it moved across Cook Strait to create a new low just east of Kaikoura... that was the real kick in pants that caused a clockwise circle of wind." -Associate Professor James Renwick at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University has researched how polar conditions affect our weather. "To get an event like this, which is pretty extreme, we need the westerly wind that normally blows across New Zealand and the southern oceans to slow down and to buckle into a series of big meanders, north-south waves around the hemisphere." The air was so
Southern Lakes (New Zealand) Southern Lakes (New Zealand) The Southern Lakes is an unofficial name given to an area of the southern South Island of New Zealand. Despite being an unofficial designation, the term Southern Lakes is widely used by organisations such as the New Zealand Meteorological Service and Automobile Association. Though exact definitions vary, the area encompasses parts of western Southland (including Fiordland) and Central Otago, and is occasionally extended to include the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury, a total of roughly . The region is generally lightly populated, with much of its southwestern part being uninhabited national park. Much of the scenery