Auckland wakes to hail, thunder and lightning strikes

Thursday, 17 May 2018

Auckland was pelted with hail on Thursday morning as thunder rumbled away in the background.

Huge hail stones have been hitting Auckland as an unsettled front moved across the region.

Lightning strikes lit up the skies towards the north and western areas of the city before 7am on Thursday, while large hail stones hit after 7am.

The hail hit hard and loud, Aucklanders said.

Auckland resident Sarah Giles said the sound of the hail was 'so scary'.

She was surprised it did not smash any windows, Giles said.

Auckland resident Rebecca Mellor with hail from this morning.

Auckland resident Rebecca Mellor said the hail was loud.

MetService said the thundery weather could also bring showers, localised heavy rain and south westerly winds.

But those would become few and far between in the afternoon as fine breaks developed.

The MetService said the thundery weather was due to an 'unsettled southwest' weather system over northern New Zealand.

It would bring moderate risk of thunderstorms to western Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato, Waitomo, Taumarunui and Taranaki overnight Wednesday and the first part of Thursday morning.

This would move south to include the Bay of Plenty during the morning.

The thunderstorms could bring localised heavy rain of 10mm to 20mm per hour, MetService said.

The thunderstorms warning had been downgraded to low-risk after 9am and the risk of more hail was unlikely, a MetService meteorologist said.

Real time information on thunder strikes could be found at blitzortung.org.