For over two hours the sky above Auckland has been flashing and booming as a spectacular thunderstorm slowly moves across the city.

Shortly before sunset rain clouds above the Waitakere Ranges exploded into life bringing deafening thunder and cloud to ground lightning from New Lynn to Helensville.

NewstalkZB is reporting that the thunderstorms have caused some minor damage.  In Massey, West Auckland, lightning blew the mains of a house in Holmes Street around 7pm.  The Fire Service was also called to a Superette in Kelston to unblock drains which flooded the store during the deluge.

Forked lightning strikes Auckland city.  Image / Simon Williams

This evening brilliant flashes of lightning can be clearly seen to the east as the thunderstorms move out in to the Hauraki Gulf.  Almost continuous thunder can be heard rumbling although it is now fading with the storms departure.  The thunderstorm produced dangerous cloud to ground lightning which WeatherWatch.co.nz warned West Auckland residents before the storm set in, advising residents to stay indoors until it had passed.

Across Waikato thunderstorms are now starting to develop.  The Lightning Tracker at WeatherWatch.co.nz is showing thunderstorms forming in the north and west. 

The tracker has detected over 14,000 strikes around the North Island today.

But it’s not over for Aucklanders.  Another band of torrential rain and isolated thunderstorms is moving towards the city and should arrive in the next couple of hours.  Also in the firing line are Northland, Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato and Taranaki.

Further bands of heavy rain, some with hail and thunder, are expected overnight and tomorrow – easing by evening for most places.

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