SNOW IN AUCKLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1939, Page 8

SNOW IN AUCKLAND

FIRST TIME SINCE 1894

COUNTRY AREAS ALSO AFFECTED.

COLDEST SNAP EVER RECORDED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND This Day. Weather history was made in Auckland today when the coldest snap ever recorded occurred and for the first time since September. 1894, snow fell in most of the suburbs and even in the city, (’onstables on the eiiy beat said sleet fell at intervals throup,'lion: the night and at about five o’clock big Hakes of snow fell for a few minutes, settling on trees and shrubs. In most suburbs snow completely covered the ground. Residents in the Waitakerei Ranges report the heaviest fall for twenty-five years. Tiie Bombay Hills and other hills thirty miles south-east of Auckland, also hills as far north as Leigh, 85 miles from the city, are covered in snow. AKAROA ISOLATED fifteen feet of snow ON HIGHWAY. FOOD SUPPLIES RUNNING SHORT. CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

Fifteen feet of snow is covering parts of the main highway to Akaroa and practically the whole of Banks Peninsula will be isolated for The best part of a week. Settlers in outlying districts will be in a bad way. for they have received no frosh food since Friday. Sixty men in the Public Works road camp near Duvauchelle had been without food for two days until a launch arrived with supplies from Akaroa this morning.

At Little River a rapid thaw set in increasing the possibility of a serious flood. An attempt will be made to open Lake Forsyth tomorrow. Today the weather had cleared on the Peninsula, although Hilltops was experiencing occasional snow and sleet showers. The steamer John Anderson left Lyttelton this morning with food supplies for eastern bays, which arc isolated.

Lake Ellesmere, which yesterday almost blocked road traffic at Kaituna, had receded today with the slackening of the south-west gale, which had banked the waters over the highway. Washouts on the railway line at Birdling’s Flat and Kaituna still block trains.

-. The storm, which raged over the peninsula for three days, struck Christchurch last night, snow starting at about six o’clock and continuing with fierce squalls until the early hours of. the morning. In the southern parts of Christchurch upwards of three inches of snow lay on the ground this morning. In the northern suburbs the fall was not so heavy.

STREETS FROZEN OVER

BLIZZARDLIKE CONDITIONS.

MOTOR ACCIDENTS AT PALMERS! ON.

PALMERSTON N., This Day.

Following one of the coldest days in the city for many years blizzardlike conditions were experienced overnight, bitter southerly winds bringing snow which fell for about two hours intermittently from three o’clock this morning. Later there was a frost of 9J degrees, the most severe this winter recorded. This morning residents awoke to find the city under a thin white mantle. The hills were similarly coated as far as the eye could see though peculiarly the tops were bare, the southerly having swept along the foothills. The streets were frozen over in the city, conditions which necessitated careful driving. There were numerous cycling spills and minor motorcar accidents.

Conditions prevented early track work at the Awapuni racecourse owing to snow on the track.