The MetService forecasted some changeable weather this past week.

'There were a few fronts which brought severe weather to start the school holidays,” says MetService Meteorologist Kyle Lee. 'The west to southwest wind regime brought cold temperatures, snow to 300 metres, thunderstorms with hail and strong winds.”

On Wednesday a strong southerly change swept up the country bringing decent thunderstorms and strong wind along the east coast of New Zealand.

'Many weather enthusiasts were able to grab a camera and snap the southerly change going through their towns,” says Kyle. 'Christchurch airport recorded the southerly coming through with wind gusts in excess of 75 km per hour while Wellington airport felt the change come through at 90 km per hour.”

The rest of the working week was left in a more settled southwest flow, although much of the temperatures were below average for this time of year. The weather was mainly settled ahead of the next cold front which reached New Zealand late on Friday.

The front was less vigorous than earlier in the week but still brought about severe weather to mainly the South Island, and wet weather to much of the country by the end of the day.

A ridge of high pressure followed the front and brought settled weather from the south. This means that a sunny Sunday was in store for most today but also meant temperatures dropped well below average for this time of year.

'Temperatures overnight dropped and stations in Tekapo and Mount Cook in the South Island recorded as low as -4C, and coastal stations like Timaru and Christchurch dropped to -1C,” says Kyle.

The week ahead continues the changeable spring trend as weather systems in the Tasman Sea take aim at the country.

'The difference is that warm moist northwest winds will replace the cooler southwest winds which dominated last week. That means temperatures should rise slowly and minimum temperatures should become more average or just above for this time of year.”