It’s been a rough ride in the last 24 hours for many in the North Island, with fairly heavy rain, winds gusting at gale force in some parts, and generally a blustery and unpleasant state of affairs!

Auckland Civil Defence (ACD) said the extreme weather resulted in 65 flood incidents, 39 downed trees and nine damaged properties.

One person had to be evacuated in Wellsford, several roofs had lifted off homes and broken windows were reported, the agency said.

Further south, police confirmed residents had been evacuated from the Tolaga Bay area.

The storm also cut power to hundreds of homes. Lines company Vector said 1200 customers in Oratia and Hunua were without power, down from 6600 during the night.

Looking at weatherwatch.co.nz’s facebook page, the reaction has been mixed – with many complaining of a sleepless and noisy night, while others described the whole thing as a bit of a “non event”.

High winds seemed to cause the most problems for commenters, along with widespread (but thankfully brief) powercuts in parts of the Coromandel.

One commenter who shall remain nameless made the observation “winds are like a woman – calm one minute, and then crazy the next here in South Auckland”. While we at Weatherwatch don’t endorse the opinions of others on gender politics, the description was consistent with observations about the volatile nature of gusts in that part of the country – varying between 40km/h and more than 100km/h in some exposed areas.

Plenty of HPa readings were coming in, with reports contrasting the readings between different centres, and keeping people informed and updated by the minute.

Consistent with Weatherwatch’s predictions, the low pressure system wasn’t quite as destructive as some other outlets would have had the public believe, with some frankly alarmist warnings contrasted by slightly more muted predictions, based on satellite observations.

As for today, the low stalls in the Tasman Sea before turning back in on the North Island – the centre of the low now weakening with the air pressure ‘filling in’.

This means winds over most of the North Island will ease today – with the exception of Northland and Auckland where westerly winds will build today – especially in Northland where they could become as strong as they were last night, but this time affecting different areas as a westerly not a south to south east wind.

in Auckland the winds will gradually build this afternoon, with windiest weather the further north you go in the region.

With the centre of the low still near Auckland expect winds to continue changing direction this morning and for drizzle and showers to feed in across the day. It will not be as wet as yesterday in the city though.

• Whitianga – 54 mm

• Avondale – 42 mm

• Auckland Airport – 23 mm

• Whangaparoa – 40 mm

• Gisborne city – 80 mm

Overnight windspeeds:

• Auckland Harbour Bridge – 90km/h

• Auckland Airport – 87km/h

• Mercury Islands, Hauraki Gulf – 141km/h

• White Island – 133km/h

• Channel Island, Coromandel – 154km/h

• Napier – 72km/h

What was your experience of the low? Do you think the forecasters got it right? Let us know in the comments below!

-Weatherwatch (with data from NZHerald.co.nz)