Lightning and torrential rain batter South Island's West Coast

Saturday, 9 November 2019

Lightning while at Glendhu Bay looking west over Treble Cone skifield in the early hours of November 9, 2019.

Nearly 16,000 lightning strikes have hit the South Island's West Coast in the past 24 hours, as storms batter the region.

Much of the lightning is out to sea but there have been 2394 strikes over Fiordland, 1658 over Westland and 73 over Southland.

Our lightning detection network has picked up around 2000 lightning strikes on an active front near Fiordland and western Southland in the past two hours. Heavy rain has been recorded too https://t.co/prKU7O2R01 ^PL pic.twitter.com/xvYut5zVjK

There have been 2394 strikes over Fiordland, 1658 over Westland and 73 over Southland in the past 24 hours.

— MetService (@MetService) November 8, 2019

A lightening strike sequence over Glendhu Bay in Wanaka.

A MetService spokesman said even by West Coast standards, it had been wetter than usual for a number of days. Some areas were experiencing as much as a month's rain in 72 hours.

One station inland from Hokitika had recorded 543mm, while Arthur's Pass recorded 353mm, he said.

Rain and wind warnings are in place from Marlborough to Southland.

Conversely, it has been very warm for parts of the east coast, with Timaru reaching 27.5 degrees Celsius and Dunedin and Ashburton above 26.

Winds had also been gusty around Canterbury, reaching speeds of 38 knots in Ashburton.