UPDATED

A possible tornado or squall has blown off roofs in Opunake township in south Taranaki overnight while the same front brought booming thunder to Auckland 6 hours later at 2am.  Meanwhile thunderstorms have affected Christchurch, Wellington, Hutt Valley and other regions in between overnight with reports now in of a large thunderstorm for the past hour in Invercargill.

WeatherWatch.co.nz’s Invercargill reporter, Malcolm Gayfer, says the thunderstorm has been raging for over an hour and is something he hasn’t seen in the area in a long time.

Further north and Taranaki Fire Communications Shift Manager Mike Wanoa says they received four reports of damage to houses last night, including windows which have blown out and roofs which have lifted off. He says fire crews are using tarpaulins to deal with the damage.

Hundreds of lightning strikes affected both islands of New Zealand overnight.

At 8pm last night 443 strikes had been recorded in 60 minutes by the Lightning Tracker at WeatherWatch.co.nz.

According to the tracker there was a large concentration of thunderstorms around Taranaki, Wanganui, the Wellington region and close to Christchurch.

At 2am that number had dropped to 116 strikes in 60 minutes, mostly around Auckland. 

WeatherWatch.co.nz exclusively predicted the risk of thunder in Auckland overnight although did rate the chances as ‘low’ due to the narrowness of the band heading north.

Torrential showers and hail also affected Auckland overnight.

As of 6:30 this morning lightning strikes had increased to 169 in the past hour showing most activity was in Southland, Fiordland and off the North Island’s west coast. 

MetService currently predicts a low risk of thunderstorms between Taranaki and coastal Waikato.

With NewstalkZB.co.nz

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