'Significant weather' for Auckland: Power restored to 25,000 homes after outage

Wednesday, 8 July 2020

Hail shower in Henderson in West Auckland on Wednesday.

About 25,000 Aucklanders have had their power restored after an outage on Wednesday afternoon.

Transpower spokeswoman Deborah Gray said homes and businesses in the Warkworth, Wellsford, Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto, Ruawai and Mangawhai areas had all lost power as the region was battered by high winds and rain.

While the company is still investigating what specifically what caused the outages, she said Auckland’s wild weather was a contributing factor.

A fallen tree on State Highway 1, just north of Johnstone's Hill Tunnels, near Puhoi.

”We are working really hard to restore the power in these areas within the next hour,” Gray said.

**READ MORE:

Hail in Rānui, West Auckland on Wednesday afternoon.

* Aucklanders warned to prepare for winds of up to 110kmh, with risk of tornados

* NZ's tornado activity: A look at what's causing our significant thunderstorms

* Weatherman Dan Corbett explains why your town is on the weather map - or not

Damage on Arwen Pl in East Tamaki, Auckland after a tornado swept through the area on June 27.

As of 6.45pm, power at substations in those areas was restored and Transpower was working closely with Vector to restore power to all customers.

Gray said crews were investigating what caused the outage to prevent it happening again.

“Thanks for your patience and understanding, and thanks to our crews in getting out in this terrible weather.”

The bad weather also caused fallen trees at Mt Wellington, Ellerslie and parts of West Auckland and on State Highway 1 at Puhoi.

Glen Eden, Titirangi, the Waitākere Ranges, Massey, Rānui and Henderson experienced hail showers, accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain at midday.

Vector has warned Aucklanders to tie down objects such as trampolines and barbecues.

The hail shower lasted for about five minutes but other parts of Auckland also reported several hail showers throughout the day.

MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the risk of hail decreased as Wednesday evening fell.

The weather on Thursday should be much better, with only a few showers in the morning and a clearer afternoon.

MetService issued a strong wind watch for the north of the North Island until 8pm Wednesday – including Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Waitomo and the western Bay of Plenty.

Thunderstorms were on the cards, along with possible strong wind gusts, hail and possible small tornados for Auckland and Northland.

The South Island needs to prepare for snow, the North Island for wind.

Another meteorologist, Dan Corrigan, said the chance of small tornados was “very slight”.

The forecast for the regions included gale gusts of up to 110kmh in exposed places.

Corrigan said the weather was significant but nothing out of the ordinary.

“This happens a few times a year. We’re not looking to break any records.”

Overnight, the winds had already picked up and were much stronger in exposed places.

The Manukau Heads had seen 75kmh of mean wind speeds and gusts of 130kmh.

At the airport and further into the city, 35kmh mean wind speeds had been recorded, gusting about 55kmh.

Auckland had had some showers go over, but they were “nothing too heavy”, Corrigan said.

Weather stations in the area had recorded about 10 to 20mm of rain.

Emergency services said they had attended no weather-related call-outs overnight on Tuesday.

Vector earlier said weather conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday could damage power lines, which could mean staff may need to shut off power to some areas.

Vector’s head of network field services, Marko Simunac, said Aucklanders should charge their devices and power banks, tie down objects that could be swept up in strong winds, such as barbecues or trampolines, and make sure they had a torch and spare batteries handy, as well as alternative fuel for cooking.