No need to panic

Flashing lights in Saturday’s night sky prompted a flurry of activity on social media, people reporting a “very big flashing light in the sky,” “intermittent light flashes” and the like.

It wasn’t a UFO, or a fire, however, but a common or garden electrical storm.

Metservice meteorologist Amy Rossiter confirmed that a trough lying to the east of Northland had produced a number of lightning strikes.

There had been about 32 strikes over 24 hours, she said, including a few over land on Saturday evening, mostly moving offshore to the east overnight.

The storm had extended from Northland to the Bay of Plenty.

Ms Rossiter added that descriptions of the flashes as red or orange in colour could be attributed to “various clouds or things in the atmosphere.”