Wild weather in Auckland brings down trees and power lines, causes flooding

Saturday, 27 June 2020

Mangawhai locals have reported seeing debris being sucked into the sky by a tornado.

Wild weather in Auckland overnight brought trees and power lines down and caused flooding.

Craig Dally, a spokesman for Fire and Emergency New Zealand, said on Saturday firefighters attended 24 weather-related callouts in north and West Auckland.

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The stormy weather focussed on Silverdale and Dairy Flat first from about 10pm, before moving west.

The tornado in Mangawhai on Friday afternoon.

Dally said there was a 'cluster' of bad weather from Te Atatū to Waimauku around 1am.

Crews were also called to Huia.

'There was flooding, roofs lifting and trees and power lines down,' Dally said of the weather-related call-outs.

He said a couple of houses in Auckland had water in them after flooding.

It comes after MetService warned of a chance of severe thunderstorms in Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, northern Waikato, and western Bay of Plenty.

'Thunderstorms are likely and there is a risk that some of these could be accompanied by downpours with rainfall intensities of 25 to 35mm per hour and tornadoes with strong wind gusts,' MetService said.

Gusts could be strong enough to cause structural damage, including trees and power lines, and may make driving hazardous. Any tornados would only affect 'very localised' areas.

'Rainfall of this intensity can cause surface and/or flash flooding, especially about low-lying areas such as streams, rivers or narrow valleys, and may also lead to slips,' MetService said.

On Friday a tornado swept through the lower Northland east coast town of Mangawhai, with trees ripped up, iron torn off roofs and signposts sent flying.

But Dally said despite the strong winds overnight there were no more tornados.

MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said the upper North Island saw some strong winds overnight due to thunder and lightning.

Gusts averaged about 54kmh but some exposed places saw up to 75kmh, such as Whangaparāoa.

Most places received on average about five to 10 millimetres of rain per hour.

However, Whenuapai received 51mm in the space of one hour.

Auckland had its first significant rainfall in nine months earlier this week after an overnight deluge.

Earlier this week, an overnight deluge in Auckland saw the region have its first significant rainfall in nine months.

For Saturday, Makgabutlane said the North Island was in store for more rainy weather, with a heavy rain watch in place for the Bay of Plenty west of Matatā.

The upper South Island would see scattered rain and showers for places like Nelson, Marlborough and Buller.

Drizzly weather and cloud was on the cards for eastern areas of the South Island, while the rest of the island would see high-level cloud, which would be fairly thick at times.