More 'severe' thunderstorms for upper North Island after house struck by lightning, roofs damaged

Monday, 12 August 2019

After a wild past few days, the weather will settle down from Tuesday.

People cleaning up the damage caused to their homes by Sunday evening's powerful storm could be in for more wild weather.

Thunderstorms in Auckland, Northland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninusula, Waikato, Waitomo, Taumarunui and Taranaki could become severe on Monday.

On its website, MetService issued a severe thunderstorm watch as there is a chance thunderstorms could bring 'damaging' wind gusts of 110km/hr or stronger.

Craig Hawkins said his neighbour's roof has come off following Sunday evening's wild weather in Auckland.

Small tornadoes were also possible, MetService said.

St Heliers resident Nancy Green witnessed mayhem unfold at her home and her neighbour's properties as a tornado ripped through the Auckland suburb on Sunday evening, lifting roofs and bringing down trees.

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A resident in St Heliers says it will take more than a day to clean up the damage caused by the weather on Sunday evening.

* 'Very unsettled' weather expected to hit parts of New Zealand**

'Wind gusts of this strength can cause some structural damage, including trees and powerlines, and may make driving hazardous,' MetService said.

Fences were down in Auckland's St Heliers.

MetService said the threat period was from Monday 9.32am to Tuesday 12am.

On Sunday evening, Niwa said that over 700 lightning strikes were recorded in an hour.

Craig Hawkins says glass doors in his lounge had been blown in.

There was wild weather in Auckland overnight, with a tornado hitting homes in waterfront suburb St Heliers, and strong winds lifting the roof of the downtown Cloud building, which has a plastic roof.

In Auckland, a house was struck by lightning, fences were down, a roof was ripped off across the city.

On Monday people across Auckland had been cleaning and repairing their homes.

Craig Hawkins, who lives in the central east Auckland suburb of St Heliers, said he was watching TV when the house 'just rumbled and there was an almighty explosion'.

Although the wild weather only took place for about 10 seconds, Hawkins and his neighbour were in for a big cleanup on Monday.

Fences down the side and front of Hawkins' property were damaged and the next door neighbour's roof had come off landing in the pool and backyard.

The north end of The Cloud on Auckland's Queen's Wharf sits open to the elements after a powerful storm ripped off part of the roof overnight.

Hawkins said the corner of his roof had come off and glass doors in the lounge had been blown in.

Fire services arrived quickly but cleaning up the damage would take more than a day, he said.

Lightning strikes were seen near Te Awamutu on Sunday night.

'We were all pretty rattled last night…it wasn't really a big night's sleep for us,' Hawkins said.

On Monday morning, Fire and Emergency NZ shift manager Craig Dally said firefighters went to 20 weather related call-outs during the storm.

Billy Hawkins took this picture of his neighbour's roof scattered around his front yard.

Auckland had the most call-outs, with some in south Waikato also.

Dally said the call-outs related to lightning, damaged roofs, trees and power lines coming down.

Part of The Cloud's roof appears to have been torn off by high winds.

One house in north-west Auckland's Kumeu was struck by lightning and five homes in St Heliers had damaged roofs.

Ports of Auckland reported 20 shipping containers were knocked over in 107kmh wind gusts. No other damage was reported.

The Cloud on Queen's Wharf was also damaged with part of the waterfront venue's roof missing after the building was battered by 'freak' winds.

A spokeswoman for Auckland Live said it was assessing the damage at The Cloud and there were no events booked there until the middle of September.

There were no disruptions in the short term, she said.

Fire crews were at the site around 10.15pm but the building was secured by security staff.

Hawkins' son, Billy, told Stuff earlier 'it literally felt like our house exploded'.

Powerlines were also down along his street, which had been cordoned off by the fire service, he said.

Windows and doors at his own home had also been blown out, he said.

'We've had wind, but this was just freak – it must have been some sort of freak wind.'

Fire and Emergency also attended Small Fry Nursery School in Bermuda Rd, Glendowie, after wind gusts reportedly ripped the roof off one of the buildings on site.

MetService meteorologist Curtis Hayes said the worst of the storm had past Auckland by 9.20pm.

At its most intense, MetService picked up wind gusts of 75kmh and a rainfall rate of 5mm per hour.

A Vector spokesman said 'there was only minor impact on the network from the storm'.

'In some instances trees or branches were blown onto customer owned service lines,' he said.

'In these cases we've made the area safe and referred customers to an electrician for repairs.'

If people saw lines coming down or hanging low, people were asked to steer clear and contact Vector on 0508 VECTOR.