STORM AND SNOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1941, Page 6

STORM AND SNOW

WINTER AT ITS WORST IN CANTERBURY HEAVY FALLS IN MANY AREAS. ARTHUR’S PASS ROUTE ALMOST BLOCKED. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Snow, rain, hail and sleet gave Canterbury its first taste of real winter weather today. After two days of rain and snow, a south-west storm developed to its fiercest degree throughout last night, and showed no sign of abating at midday. Very rough weather was experienced by the inter-island express steamer Maori at Cape Campbell, but she made a smart passage across the Strait, arriving at Lyttelton at a.m., although she was half an hour late in leaving Wellington. Although Christchurch experienced only slight falls of snow, temperatures yesterday and today have been much colder than on preceding days. Heavy falls of snow in the hilly parts of the province, particularly at Cass and Bealey, are making the Arthur’s Pass route to the West Coast almost impassable. Banks Peninsula was also swept by a snowstorm, twelve inches of snow lying no the hilltop on'the road to Akaroa. Snow is also reported to be lying at many places in Mid-Canterbury and North Canterbury. It fell steadily from the early hours of the morning to about 10.30 a.m. at the Burnham Military Camp, where there was a coating about two inches deep.