Warning of heavy rain and thunderstorms for North Island after stormy Sunday

Monday, 11 November 2019

Thousands of lightning strikes lit up the sky over Auckland as a massive band of heavy rain crossed the city on Sunday.

After a chaotic weekend of weather caused tens of thousands of lightning strikes around the country, there is still more heavy rain to come.

MetService is warning of hazardous driving conditions, surface flooding, and slips around the North Island on Monday morning, with more potential thunderstorms to hit later in the day.

The rain is heaviest around Bay of Plenty and Gisborne, which could receive another 50 millimetres to 70mm on top of what has already fallen. Taranaki will also be hit hard, with 30-50mm throughout the day and peak intensities of up to 15mm an hour.

The weather on Sunday caused power cuts, fallen trees, slips and flooding around the North Island. State Highway 6 in Tasman remains closed on Monday due to a large slip covering the road.

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State Highway 6 between Murchison and Glenhope has been closed by a slip. Police say there are several slips, fallen trees and flooded patches, and the road will be closed for some time.

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Eight domestic and regional flights into and out of Auckland Airport were cancelled.

Auckland, Waikato, and Taupo also have Severe Weather Watches in place, with the risk of thunderstorms.

Auckland has a relatively easy start to the day, with isolated showers, though strong winds and heavy rain are expected in the late afternoon.

MetService Meteorologist Tui McInnes said from 6am Friday to 8am Monday, Wellington Airport had 79.5mm of rain.

In the last nine hours, there had been 57.6mm of rain which McInnes said was pretty hefty.

Heavy rain is expected to continue throughout the day. (File photo)

The rest of the week was not looking too bad as rain was likely to move to the east, he said.

'[On Monday] there will be a clearance of rain and tomorrow is not looking too bad,' McInnes said.

Wednesday would be a bit windy for Wellingtonians with some overnight rain.

Hawke's Bay and the Wairarapa both had wet mornings but the weather would be quite nice on Wednesday, he said.

'This weather is very stereotypical of spring, which is a wet and windy season.'

Christchurch has also been hit with rain, though it should be relatively light and ease in the early afternoon.

MetService meteorologist Andrew James said the rain was connected to the unusually warm temperatures last week.

'Such large amounts of rain are due to a north to northwest flow ahead of these fronts. This dragged down warm and moist air from the subtropics. Warmer air can hold a lot of moisture, which can lead to significant amounts of rain.'

The front should move on after Monday and Tuesday should be fine for most of the country, but another front is expected to make its way up from the south from Wednesday onwards.