Heavy rain, strong winds move on from upper North Island to the east

Wednesday, 29 August 2018

Heavy rain and strong winds have moved on from the top of the North Island and are heading to eastern parts, starting a day or two of stormy weather on that side of the island, especially around Gisborne.

There is a severe weather warning and watch for heavy rain in eastern Bay of Plenty and northern Gisborne from 3pm Wednesday to Thursday afternoon. Heavy rain and downpours are expected to hit Coromandel and the remaining areas of Bay of Plenty and Gisborne.

The heaviest rain is expected about the ranges between Gisbourne and Bay of Plenty from 3pm Wednesday. Heavy rain is also expected in the Wairoa district from Wednesday night.

The front bringing the rain is expected to stall about Bay of Plenty on Wednesday night. 'It certainly will bring significant rain for Bay of Plenty from tonight to tomorrow,' Lu said.

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By Wednesday afternoon the storms began to clear in the north of the country and the a generally pleasant day is expected in Auckland and Hamilton on Thursday, the MetService's Angus Hines said.

But that wasn't the case earlier on Wednesday. At 5am rainfall rates were up to 10-15mm an hour in parts of Northland and Auckland MetService meteorologist Fulong Lu said. They were precceeded by some strong winds overnight ahead of the front, with 90kmh recorded at Cape Reinga and 96kmh at Tutukaka.

MetService was forecasting rain with heavy falls and possible thunderstorms for the northern half of the North Island, including Taranaki and Taupō. It should clear from the west later.

MetService meteorologist Mark Bowe on Wednesday morning the station at Warkworth, in north Auckland, had had 'quite a significant amount' of rain with a total of 46mm in the last 12 hours.

Whangaparaoa had also been hit hard by the rain with 11.6mm falling in just 30 minutes from 6.30am until 7am.

'In any situation when you have localised downpours you can expect surface flooding because you get quite a lot of rain in a short amount of time,' Bowe said.

'Surface flooding is definitely something to watch out for, things like rivers and streams rising rapidly and drains that are maybe not cleared.'

Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman Colin Underdown said it had been called to two incidents of flooding in Auckland as of 8am Wednesday.

One flooding incident was at Murrays Bay and the other in Stanmore Bay, Underdown said. 

For much of the lower North Island and top of the South Island rain is expected to develop during Wednesday morning, with thunderstorms possible in Whanganui and Manawatū. It should clear late afternoon or evening.

Nelson west of Motueka had a heavy rain watch until 1pm Wednesday with periods of heavy northeasterly rain expected. There is also a strong wind watch in place for western Nelson as well as Buller until 1pm with east to northeast gales potentially becoming severe in exposed places.

Metservice meteorologist Mark Bowe said the Takaka Hill weather station recorded 7.3mm of rain between 8am and 9am today, measuring 35.7mm of rain in the past 12 hours.

He said the rain would be clearing in the afternoon, with a few showers expected on Thursday and Friday looking fine with some high clouds and light wind.

Rain could also turn to snow about the higher parts of the Crown Range Road and the Milford Road during Wednesday afternoon or early evening.