Auckland, Northland: Severe weather moving in fast

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Auckland, Northland: Severe weather moving in fast

4/12/2009 1:39am

> From the WeatherWatch archives

Two aggressive fronts are set to merge over Auckland city this afternoon and in the past 10 minutes MetService has issued their second only Severe Thunderstorm Warning – this time for Whangarei, Kaipara and Rodney district, including Helensville.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the rain radars looks a bit like the ‘perfect storm’. “We’re seeing one band of torrential rain moving in from the north east, prompting rain warnings earlier today, combined with a band of aggressive thunderstorms morning in from the north west – the two will merge over Auckland this afternoon and evening”.

Mr Duncan says the live and free lightning tracker has fired into life in the past hour, with 430 lightning strikes detected over Northland to Waikato in the past 60 minutes.

View the lightning tracker here.

Mr Duncan says there is an increased risk of flooding due to the slow movement of the fronts.

Earlier story

A front has today stalled over Auckland and while it’s already pouring in the city things are only just getting started with very heavy downpours and isolated thunderstorms predicted this afternoon and evening.

A steady ‘stream’ of rain is being fed in from the north east lining up directly with Auckland city. WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan says it’s going to be a very wet day across the region. “The rain is going to gradually become heavier throughout the day with isolated thunderstorms likely this afternoon and evening”.

“Due to the fact the front has stalled over the city WeatherWatch.co.nz now believes there is a significantly increased risk of flooding for some Auckland areas”.

Mr Duncan says there were will be some “lulls” in the rain but the downpours that are predicted this afternoon and overnight may produced problems for motorists, leaky buildings and flood prones areas.

MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for Auckland City predicting up to 100mm of rain which Mr Duncan says is “very rare”.

He says rainfalls to that amount, on top of heavy rain yesterday, increases the flood risk. “We may see some roads underwater or partially closed, there’s also an increased risk of slips”.

Strong easterlies have reached gale force out in the gulf and are already gusty in the city, blowing leaves off trees and into gutters.

The heat has eased in the city, following a week of muggy conditions where the ‘feels like’ temperature reached over 30 degrees. This morning it’s just 15 degrees in the city

Comments

Before you add a new comment, take note this story was published on 4 Dec 2009.

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LayD on 4/12/2009 2:53am

We had a pretty impressive display in Whangarei. Heavy rain for a sustained period and a few very loud thunder claps which resulted in some surface flooding. I think had it rained for just a bit longer at its heaviest, flooding would have been much worse. National News Weather reports for Whangarei for the last 3 days have been way off, so nice for them to get it right. ; -)

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Guest on 4/12/2009 12:15am

Hi,
we are getting pretty strong wind gusts hitting town is it supposed to get any worse
and are we likely to get much of the rain and thunder storms.
Thanks

Reply

WW Forecast Team on 4/12/2009 1:46am

At this stage, not really. Te Aroha is one the fringes of the main rain band and the thunderstorms are confined to north of Auckland and south east of Matamata.

Regards
WeatherWatch

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