Squalls and thunderstorms are forecast for the rest of the week. Photo: Twitter / Brennan Mullan
Heavy rain and thunderstorms in parts of the North Island overnight have brought down slips and closed a highway - and the stormy weather is set to continue .
A large slip overnight closed State Highway 25 between Thames and Thornton Bay.
Detours were in place around the arterial road between Rennie St and Ngarimu Heights Row, north of Thames.
A slip came down near McLaren Falls Road heading into to Tauranga, but State Highway 29 remains open.
State Highway 1 at Marton, Manawatū-Whanganui, was closed due to flooding between Calico Line and Wings Line. Motorists were advised to use an alternative route.
Thunderstorms brought intense bursts of rainfall across parts of New Zealand yesterday. MetService said Hamilton reported 58mm of rain in just 24 hours with 37mm falling in one hour.
The squalls, hail and thunderstorms were brought by cold front that moved across the North Island overnight, WeatherWatch forecaster Philip Duncan said.
"That's going to be pretty much the forecast for the next few days."
Underlying the bout of unsettled weather were low pressure zones in the southern ocean and westerlies elsewhere, with the wind direction changing around from northwestlies to southwesterlies.
"There'll be long dry spells and all of a sudden a big burst of rain," Duncan said.
"It's classic mid-spring stormy stuff.
"There will be localised strong gusts right across the country - they come out of the blue - and that's when you can lose a tree or have your power cut but just down the road they didn't have any problems."
"It's classic mid-spring stormy stuff" - Philip Duncan
Lightning had been tracking over the upper North Island and Waikato.
An orange heavy rain warning was in place for Bay of Plenty east of Whakatāne, the ranges of Gisborne and north of Ruatoria, MetService said. Northland, the central North Island high country, Waitomo, North Taranaki including the mountain and Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound could also get heavy rain.
Waves of up to 4m were forecast for the Kāpiti-Porirua Coast, Otaki to Cape Terawhiti, due to heavy swells and strong wind today.
Duncan said the North Island was "saturated" after rain this month and there could be localised downpours and flooding, but widespread problems were unlikely.
Surges of stormy weather would last through the week, and Southland and Otago were in for low temperatures at the weekend.