Lightning strikes Taranaki house, huge hailstones fall

Thursday, 30 November 2017

Lightning has struck a house and hail stones as big as golf balls have fallen in isolated thunderstorms in North Taranaki. 

After a day of high temperatures and clear settled weather, ominous black thunderclouds gathered north of New Plymouth in the late afternoon.

In Urenui, about 30 kilometres from New Plymouth, resident Bridget Baikie said hailstones, some as big as golf balls, pelted her house just before 6pm.

'They were massive and they were literally covering the lawn,' she said. 'I've never seen hail like that here, ever.'

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The stones made about 20 holes in the plastic clearlite roof of their conservatory, she said.

'It went on for quite a while, a good 15 minutes. I couldn't believe how black the sky was.'

Then minutes later a family living near near Waitara, about 15km south of Urenui, said lightning struck their house during a thunderstorm just after 6pm.

'It was a really big bang; it made all our ears ring,' said the home owner, who did not want to be identified.

'There was a bright flash of light that came from where there's damage now, and we could smell smoke.'

She said the strike ripped out a nail that was holding the carpet to the concrete floor and left a hole in the concrete.

'It was a bit scary; everyone kind of tried to figure out what had happened.

'It appears one of our copper water pipes in our wall is damaged.'

Heavy rain also fell from Bell Block to Tikorangi.

Earlier, Metservice issued a severe thunderstorm warning after their radar detected severe thunderstorms near Tarata about 5:15pm, moving towards the northwest.

They were expected to cover Urenui, Motunui, Tarata and Lepperton about 6:15pm but the warning was lifted at 6:09pm.