Thunderstorms and hail lashed parts of the South Island this afternoon.

WeatherWatch.co.nz was sent numerous photos (which you can see in other stories on our homepage).

Meanwhile video and tweets were captured by other news outlets at NZME.

Here’s an update from NewstalkZB…

I call this masterpiece, gazebo in hail #Hail #Christchurch pic.twitter.com/1N0iSzM5K7

— Thommy Jerneskog (@tjerneskog) December 13, 2015

Thunderstorms are forecast until tonight.

Christchurch city is being hit hard, with hailstones reportedly the size of marbles falling.

Orion said about 2500 customers are without power.

Here we go again. More rain in the last few hours than we’ve had for weeks. Thunder rolling right overhead and plenty of lightening too.

— Karen Hay (@KDH47) December 13, 2015

BREAKING NEWS: Video of one of the #Canterbury #Tornadoes just in… https://t.co/myIu08ucTI

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) December 13, 2015

Tornado spotted in south Canterbury @NewstalkZB @WeatherWatchNZ pic.twitter.com/8zKUJM53bq

— Chris Lynch (@lynchonzb) December 13, 2015

Wow Canterbury! #SummerStorm @MetService @WeatherWatchNZ pic.twitter.com/01NThUCDN1

— Charlotte Westwood (@CharlottePGWS) December 13, 2015

Nearly 12-hundred homes in Rolleston and Weedons were knocked off the grid around 1.20pm

Customers at Burnham, Ellesmere, Little River, Springston and Birdling’s Flat are also without power.

Orion is investigating the cause of the outages.