Queenstown weather
What the weather actually does here, season by season, and where to get a forecast worth trusting before you head up the hill.
Queenstown sits in an alpine basin and the weather moves through it quickly. Check a forecast the morning you go rather than the week before, and check the mountain separately from the town — they are often doing different things.
MetService carries the town forecast. For anything above the bushline, the ski field's own snow report and the Department of Conservation's track and alert pages are better sources.
The seasons
Seasons here are southern hemisphere, which catches out more visitors than anything else on this page.
- Winter, June to September. Ski season. Temperatures in town sit between about -2 and 8 degrees. Snow falls at lake level from time to time, but most of it stays on the mountains. Shaded footpaths and tracks ice up, and the Crown Range road can close.
- Spring, October and November. Unsettled, and one of the quieter stretches of the year.
- Summer, December to February. Long evenings, and the warmest the lake gets — which is still cold. High season, and the busiest.
- Autumn, March to May. The most settled weather of the year, and the colour through Arrowtown in April.
What to carry
Sun protection in every season. The UV here is strong even when the air is cold, and a bright day on snow catches people out badly. Take a warm layer whatever the forecast says, and something with grip underfoot in winter.
If the weather turns
Free things to do has the indoor-adjacent options, and the restaurants are quieter mid-winter than you would expect. The snow page covers what happens when the fields close.