Rough weather hits the south

Ever-changing weather has hit the south, ranging from thunderstorms to sunshine.

Jack Murrell, 82, has lived in Te Anau for 72 years, and said he had never seen anything like Sunday night’s thunderstorm.

‘‘The lightning was spectacular and the noise was deafening. [It was] a far greater thunderstorm than I’ve ever experienced.’’

MetService meteorologist Nick Zacher said about 5am yesterday, the heaviest rain recorded was 56mm during the previous six hours in Milford Sound.

On Sunday, Invercargill basked in a high of 22 degrees Celsius, but temperatures dropped overnight to 12.8C, recorded just before 7am yesterday.

Rain in the region will ease off tomorrow afternoon but will return in time for the weekend. Temperatures for the rest of the week will remain about 16C in Southland and 14C in Invercargill, with northeasterly winds forming on Thursday.

Yesterday in Queenstown, a power cut and several false fire alarms followed a thunderstorm.

More than 26,000 lightning strikes lit up the South Island during the early hours.

A power cut at 4.11am affected many early morning alarm clocks.

Meanwhile, volunteer firefighters attended six false alarm calls during the thunderstorm.

Fire risk management officer John Smalls, of Queenstown, said it was a ‘‘very busy night’’ for the volunteers from about 4.30am.

One false alarm was caused by heavy rain and water getting into the system, Smalls said.

Another one seemed to be a short cut because of a thunder strike in the roof, he said.

Adams said the lightning and thunderstorm had passed Queenstown, Wanaka and Central Otago.

‘‘The ... lightning risk is easing off but not for the rest of the country.’’

It was ‘‘typical’’ for weather in spring to change hourly and the worst had passed, he said.