Floods, lightning … and a rainbow: a wild weather day for some in the center of the North Island

From rainbows and lightning to hail and flooding, residents in the central North Island have faced a mix of wild weather this afternoon.

Metservice issued a thunderstorm warning at 1 p.m. for Waitomo and Waikato and towards Taupō and the Bay of Plenty.

It expired just before 8.30pm, which means that the bad weather that caused Metservice to issue such a warning had passed.

MetService meteorologist Aidan Pyselman said wild weather started to skyrocket around 2 p.m. but was now on an improving trend, with thunderstorms heading northeast across the Bay of Plenty and then offshore. .

“Moving on to tomorrow, it looks pretty good. All the action has been this afternoon and evening,” he said.

“Inland places like Otorohanga and Putāruru … were the ones that saw a lot of thunderstorm activity, localized downpours, fairly large hail, and thunder and lightning.”

Waitomo Caves resident Kit Blackwood said her home was hit by hail for several hours this afternoon.

“Just the ridiculous sound [of the hail hitting the roof], it was so strong, “he said.

“The hail was bigger than an average marble. It was crazy,” he said.

Meanwhile, NZME’s Luke Kirkness, a resident of Papamoa East, saw what he described as a
“mini tornado”, a whirlwind of wind and leaves that traveled some 50 meters out to sea.

“It went over a couple of waves and it just faded away,” he said.

“After it disappeared, there were clouds above us that were spinning around on themselves. They came from the east and collided with an invisible wall and twisted in on themselves if that makes sense.”

Further south, a Metservice heavy rain advisory is in effect for part of the Hawke’s Bay area, north of Napier.

Residents have been told to expect 40 to 60mm more rain in addition to what has already fallen today.

In the meantime, Auckland locals can look forward to a mostly fair day tomorrow, the second day of America’s Cup races, with a high of 25 ° C. One or two showers in the afternoon is possible.