250 without power in west Auckland following outage

Friday, 22 February 2019

A power cut has left hundreds of west Auckland households in the dark on Friday night - but it's not due to the first wet weather for a few months.

A Vector spokesman said the network fault meant about 250 households in the Kumeu area were without power.

Power was yet to be restored by 11pm and the spokesman was unable to say when it would be.

Despite wind and rain being forecast for Kumeu on Friday night, the spokesman said the outage was not weather-related.

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Despite the outage not being weather-related, the country's still due to get a wet spell after weeks of dry weather.

And while the remnants of Cyclone Oma were due to miss New Zealand, the warm moist air was likely to bring wet weather.

Temperatures are expected to drop on the weekend as a cold southerly sweeps over NZ.

MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for Northland and the Tararua Range. Northland will likely get a further 70mm to 90mm of rain.

Weather watches are in place for Auckland, Mount Taranaki and eastern Bay of Plenty. Most of the country is likely to get some rain on Saturday and Sunday - and it could be heavy.

Cold southerly gales are possible too, with snow down to about 1000 metres possible for the top of the South Island.