Fierce winds and heavy rain lashed homes in the Auckland region overnight – uplifting roofs, toppling over shipping containers and damaging The Cloud at the waterfront.
Up to 1700 lightning strikes were recorded and emergency services were dealing with callouts from all around the city and down towards the south of Waikato.
At least one house was struck by lightning in Auckland.
High winds at Ports of Auckland Sunday night….. pic.twitter.com/xzRx840bna
— Bryan ?? (@Kiwi__Patriot) August 11, 2019
Thunder, lightning and heavy rain started to pound the area from about 8 pm. The NZ Fire and Emergency services responded to about 20 callouts from around Auckland and Waikato.
An East Auckland man told TVNZ he got a shock when his neighbor’s roof flew into his backyard.
“When the rain just started – there was a mighty bang!
“And the roof blew off and the doors blew in and we were all of a sudden totally exposed to this weather. It was just amazing.”
MetService meteorologist Kyle Lee said they received reports of tornadoes in northern parts of the Waikato and southern parts of Auckland overnight.
“There was a lot of attention around the front [weather system] that went across the North Island yesterday evening – plenty of lightning strikes along the front and pretty strong winds experienced from much of the top end of the North Island.
@WeatherWatchNZ lightning over #WestAuckland pic.twitter.com/Vc6p6C2tDT
— MattyMatt (@MattDyer01) August 11, 2019
“It looks like there was some significant damage to a few houses and very possible we would’ve got a tornado or funnel cloud reaching the ground there for a brief period.”
That front has since gone over and past the North Island and things are much quieter now, he said.
Source: NZ Herald
