High winds and rain wreak havoc
Brace yourself for more wet and wild weather as the rain that hit yesterday is expected to linger on for a while longer in parts of the country.
Heavy rain caused havoc yesterday with slips blocking roads, water flooding buildings and strong winds downing power lines and bringing a tree down on a house.
A locked-down New Zealand had to batten down the hatches as a wet and windy storm battered the country.
Parts of Auckland were drenched yesterday with up to 23.5mm of rain falling in just six hours.
Firefighters used chainsaws to remove a tree that smashed into a home’s roof on Hume Dr in Auckland’s Hillcrest about 3.30pm.
Fire and Emergency NZ shift manager Craig Dally told the Herald firefighters were then sent to a Karangahape Rd building which had flooded.
High winds also lashed Wellington, and earlier across Canterbury, where gusts hit 104km/h at Le Bons Bay on Banks Peninsula just before midday.
Forecasters expect Canterbury and Otago high country areas to get decent snow dumps early this week and temperatures are set to plummet over the day, thanks to a predicted southerly blast.
Snow is forecast to around 700m and MetService is warning that frosts are possible in some South Island spots.
The West Coast has been lashed by rain and residents were asked by MetService to brace for possible thunderstorms.
State Highway 6 east of Westport was closed yesterday, between Inangahua and Westport, with slips at each end of the Lower Buller Gorge, at Uranium Point and at Inangahua.
Heavy rain watches and warnings are in place for the ranges of Westland, south of Otira, Taranaki, eastern Bay of Plenty hills, and Tongariro National Park and the Kaimanawa Range.
Some Wellingtonians woke up to the sound of rubbish being scattered across their streets, and had to endure a strong northerly wind howling through the capital coupled with lashings of rain.
Heavy showers and thunderstorms continue to be on the cards for Marlborough, Nelson, Buller, Westland and Fiordland over the next couple of days.
An active front preceded by a strong moist northerly flow is forecast to move eastwards across the North Island today, delivering a period of strong northerly winds and heavy rain to many parts of the Island.
For the North Island, except for Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, expect rain to turn into some squally and thundery showers.