Tornado upends oak tree on to Waikato classroom
A mini tornado uprooted an oak tree at a Waikato school, which then fell on and destroyed a classroom. The tornado struck Orini Combined School, east of Huntly, shortly before 2.50pm yesterday.
Principal Chrissy Wakeman said the school would be closed today.
Severe storms rolled across the country again after thunderstorms and heavy rainfall downed trees and flooded roads in Auckland on Saturday.
Thunderstorms and lightning strikes had been seen across Northland, Auckland, Waikato, the central North Island, Wairarapa and the Southern Alps yesterday afternoon, Metservice meteorologist Jessie Owen said.
‘‘The strongest band of thunderstorms at the moment is in a line down from Northland, eastern Auckland and into the Waikato.
‘‘That line is going to continue to move eastwards throughout this afternoon and that is probably where the worst of those thunderstorms are going to be,’’ Owen said.
Thunderstorms travelled southward over Auckland on Saturday evening, bringing surface flooding and triggering more than 50 weather-related call-outs, according to Fire and Emergency. Trees were downed and damage was reported across several suburbs.
Further south, heavy rainfall also caused flooding and road closures in Christchurch on Friday and Saturday. Metservice reported that the city’s airport weather station received more than one month’s worth of rain on Saturday morning.
Warm weather was also set to stick around until midweek, with temperatures sitting a few degrees above average in places, said Owen. ‘‘From about Wednesday onwards, we are going to see a bit of a drop to around about average.’’