Homes, streets left flooded
Weather station sees second-wettest hour as storm hits
‘‘Today we saw hourly rain rates around the 50-70mm mark in Auckland. This is a very intense amount of rain but still a ways off the top two hourly records for the Auckland region.’’ Metservice tweet
Auckland was thrashed by rain and lightning on Monday, with damage from flooding reported throughout the region.
More than one month’s worth of rain was recorded in 10 hours, with 109 millimetres of rainfall in Albany, North Shore. The monthly average is 85-90mm.
More than 4000 lightning strikes were also recorded across Auckland and lower Northland, including 700 in five minutes, as a thunderstorm moved south from Northland.
The National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) said that between 8am and 9am, the weather station at Albany experienced its second-wettest hour ever.
However, Metservice said it wasn’t the second-wettest hour for Auckland as a whole.
‘‘Today we saw hourly rain rates around the 50-70mm mark in Auckland. This is a very intense amount of rain but still a ways off the top two hourly records for the Auckland region,’’ it said in a tweet.
Hundreds of homes remained without power on Monday afternoon.
Rain flooded low-lying areas including homes, roads and motorways.
Cars were also submerged in water on roads and in driveways, and police asked drivers to delay their travel.
Part of Point Chevalier
Countdown’s roof collapsed after the rain hit and multiple other Countdown stores were closed.
Three schools were closed for the day, including Kelston Boys’
High School in West Auckland. A lightning strike activated a fire alarm there and Fire and Emergencyō NZ was unable to attend to turn it off.
Orewā College in North Auckland also announced it would close for the day as the school premises had flooded, causing a health and safety issue.
Several Covid-19 vaccination and testing sites were also closed by the Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre, which manages the vaccine response for Auckland and Northland.
They included the three drive-through sites at rewa, Wairau Valley and Westgate.
The tara Vaccination Centre, both indoor and outdoor sites, was closed while staff repaired damage.
Seven more community testing sites were also closed.
Vector had also reported power outages across the Auckland region, saying areas of Wellsford, Helensville, Kaukapakapa and rewa were without power.
Metservice lifted its severe thunderstorm watch for Auckland just after midday on Monday and a heavy rain warning was lifted at 2pm. However, heavy rain warnings remained in place for Waikato and Coromandel until the evening.
There was also a heavy rain watch in place for Bay of Plenty, with the region’s Civil Defence warning of weather ‘‘worse than this’’ on its way.