Wettest December hour on record: Person hurt by lightning, flights delayed, schools closed as storm rages across Auckland

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

This video was taken at 8.23am in Blockhouse Bay, Auckland.

A short but brutal storm has delivered two hours of thunder, lightning and heavy downpours to Auckland.

Thunderstorms battered the region starting around 8am causing power outages, flight cancellations, flooding and school closures, with lightning injuring a worker at a south Auckland business.

Lightning and thunder is currently battering Auckland.

The storms hit the entire region with lightning strikes reported from Orewa down to Manukau.

At 9:30am Metservice was showing more than 860 lightning strikes had struck the region.

* Auckland wakes to hail, thunder and lightning strikes

* Heavy rain and thunder to come for North**

The storm had seen the wettest hour in December in Auckland on record, NIWA said, adding it was also the wettest summer hour since 1975.

Bad weather hit Auckland around 8.30am on Tuesday

There were ongoing disruptions at Auckland airport, with flights delayed or cancelled as a result of the weather. Several aircraft required engineering inspections due to possible lightning strikes.

Air New Zealand chief operational integrity standards officer Captain David Morgan said while aircraft were insulated and designed to withstand lightning strikes, they must be inspected before they could depart.

'While we regret the disruption to our customers, safety must come first and we ask customers to bear with us as we manage through the effects of the weather and carry out inspections.'

The airline was expecting significant flow-on disruption across its domestic network throughout the day.

In Blockhouse Bay, resident Amy Buncuga said lightning had hit right outside her home.

Lightning hit Natalie McNamara's television antenna in Blockhouse Bay on Tuesday.

'It gave me such a fright, I screamed, I hate thunder and lightning it was going on pretty steadily for around an hour it was pretty crazy.'

The lightning in Blockhouse Bay struck Natalie McNamara's television antenna, attached to her house.

Lightning struck the water by Red Beach on Auckland's North Shore

McNamara said the antenna caught on fire and there were sparks.

'It singed all the wires, fried our TV, modem and phone,' McNamara said.

The guttering on her home had also been burnt, she said.

McNamara had been sitting on the couch – a couple of metres away from the TV – with her two children, comforting them when the thunder and lightning hit, she said.

'The kids were mortified and petrified – it was surreal.

Rain and thunderstorms are expected across the top of the north island.

'It sounded like a massive firework but it was another level with how loud it was.'

Since the morning, her ears were still ringing and she had a massive headache, she said.

Fire Services spokesman Colin Underdown said they were 'inundated' with emergency callouts and there had been about 100 calls between 8am and 10am.

The bulk of the calls were lightning strikes, flooding and alarm activations due to the electrical storm, he said.

'There were a couple trees down, we have had a building or two struck by lightning, there was a well involved garage fire in Mangere that they think was struck by lightning strike.'

Metservice is showing more than 860 strikes across Auckland this morning as a consequence of the thunder storm that is passing across the city.

Woman injured

A woman was injured by a lightning strike in Māngere and was in a moderate condition.

The incident happened at Happy Campers campervan rental and the receptionist, Andy Carpentier, said one of his colleagues fainted after a huge crash of thunder overhead.

Flooding along Glenesk Rd in Piha on December 4.

He was unsure if lightning struck the building but said: 'It sounded really, really close.'

Photo frames fell off the wall, the lights went out and the phones were dead for a few moments.

Carpentier said the woman, in her 50s, fell unconscious around 8.40am and was still not fully conscious half an hour later.

Power outages

Vector spokeswoman Murielle Baker said the strikes caused Vector's network to trip in some suburbs including Whangaparaoa, Piha, Laingholm, Oratia, and Helensville, Maraetai, and Clevedon.

'Vector's network managers are back-feeding electricity to those affected areas from nearby powerlines and other infrastructure, and power is being continuously restored to these areas where possible.

'However, in some areas, some customers may remain without power until it is safe for Vector's outage crews to repair the faults in the storm.

Flooding along the road in Glenesk Valley, Piha.

'During a power outage, please remember the safety of the public and Vector's contracting field staff is of primary importance and please, always treat downed lines as live and stay clear.'

Flights cancelled

An Auckland Transport bus braving the floodwaters on Glengarry Rd, Glen Eden.

Flights in and out from Auckland Airport have been delayed and an Air New Zealand spokesperson said there were 'significant delays' to both international and domestic flights.

Customers were being advised to delay non-urgent travel and consult the airline's arrivals and departures page.

Steve Boukaram said his flight to Sydney was delayed about four hours after it was struck by lightning.

Boukaram said they were advised electrical and engineering checks had to be completed before they were given the all clear.

A spokesman for Auckland Airport said a lightning alert had been issued just after 8am.

'All refuelling aircraft have stopped on the airfield,' he said.

Earlier there was an evacuation at the Jetstar end of the domestic terminal, an Auckland Airport spokesperson confirmed.

'The strength of the lightening triggered an alert in the domestic terminal, which then instigated a brief evacuation of the terminal,' he said.

'Travellers were bought back inside shortly afterwards.'

Schools closed

Henderson Valley School in West Auckland was forced to close as they had no power or phones as the storm hit.

In a Facebook post, the school said the Ministry of Education had advised it to close due to health and safety and children should be kept at home.

Oratia District School, Kelston Boys' High School and Papatoetoe Central School had also been closed due to the weather and related power outages.

Children who were already dropped at Oratia were being supervised by staff until parents or caregivers could collect them.

'No power at school means our septic tank system will not be operational which creates an unsafe environment for students and staff.'

Flooding

Glenesk Rd in Piha became flooded with water during the deluge.

Piha resident Bobbie Carroll said the storm and its lightning was intense but only lasted about half an hour - unlike the storm in February and April this year when the rain was constant.

'This was a flash thunder storm. The lightning was ferocious.'

Glen Eden in West Auckland also had flooding problems.

Resident Linda Baird said the bottom of Glengarry Rd had been completely covered by the swollen stream.

The calm after the storm

At 10am MetService confirmed the bad weather was moving away from Auckland and further down the country to the Hauraki Gulf and the Coromandel Peninsula.

On the brighter side, Millward said once the storms passed through, the weather should fine up by the afternoon.

'We can expect to see some lighter showers overnight and through to Thursday but it should be nicer on the weekend.

'It's been quite a turbulent few weeks in terms of weather.'