Photo: Supplied / MetService
Lightning, thunder and heavy rain lashed Auckland on Thursday night, as a storm that knocked out power and cancelled flights in the capital blanketed parts of the North Island.
Aucklanders reported massive downpours and thunderclaps so loud that they rattled windows.
MetService's rain radar showed a heavy band of rain sitting over the city's central and western suburbs about 6.45pm. The forecaster said the storm could be accompanied by wind gusts and hail.
"A lot of thunderstorm activity over western parts of the North Island, as an active front spreads onto the country," it posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Shortly after 7.15pm, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said that 200,000 lightning strikes had been recorded in the Tasman Sea so far on Thursday.
"The threat for thunderstorms will continue into the weekend, some of which could be gusty, particularly in the North Island on Saturday night," it said in a post on X.
As of 7.20pm, MetService did not have any watches or warnings in place for Auckland.
The forecaster told RNZ there had been 30,000 lightning strikes throughout New Zealand on Thursday.
More unstable weather was expected for the weekend.
Flights cancelled
Meanwhile, strong winds at Wellington Airport had caused 15 flights in and out of the capital to be cancelled, and hundreds in the city were earlier without power.
Most flights had been able to operate normally, but wind gusts were causing landing difficulties for some flights, the airport said.
In a statement, Air New Zealand said flight NZ417 was returned to Auckland after it was unable to land from gusty weather, and customers would be accommodated on the next available service.
Customers were advised to check their flights on the Air New Zealand app and website for updates.
Almost 250 properties were earlier without power in the capital. The outage happened at 11.30am, affecting more than 20 streets in Petone. Wellington Electricity said the outage was caused by damage to its overhead network equipment.
As of 7.20pm, no current outages were reported on the Wellington Electricity website.
MetService had forecast a heavy rain watch and a strong wind watch with gusts expected to reach up to 100km/h for Wairarapa, Wellington and the Marlborough Sounds through to 4pm on Thursday.
The north-to-northwest winds may approach severe gale in exposed places, it said.
Heavy rain watches were also in place for the Westland ranges and the headwaters of the Canterbury lakes until 9pm.
Earlier, there was a strong wind watch for the Canterbury high country which expired at 3pm.