Winter's here

Winter appears to be here with a vengeance. My phone has been beeping every few hours over the past couple of days to warn of snowfall on the Rimutaka Hill Road, and the papers (and their online equivalents) have been full of images of snow, and tales of woe from people who haven't been driving to the conditions, delayed flights, cancelled ferry crossings, flooding, tornadoes and other weather-related issues.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2431269/Cold-front-blasts-away-autumn/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2428109/Cold-spell-to-continue-through-to-next-week
http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/new-zealand/2431573/Snow-fans-ignoring-dangers
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2431625/Black-ice-carnage-on-roads
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2431454/Council-offers-residents-quad-bike-taxi/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/weather/news/article.cfm?c_id=10&objectid=10572952
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10573827 - nice picture of a waterspout off the Bay of Plenty coast

But wait, there's more! Severe weather warning for this weekend - strong winds again, gusting up to 120kmh in exposed places. And there's a fair bit of rain expected too. Why does it always happen on the weekend??