“Training” is a meteorological term that refers to thunderstorms and intense downpours all tracking in a line one behind each other – like train carriages on a train track. Slightly east or west of that line it may be sunny and completely dry.

🚨🌧️⛈️Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued by @metservice – slow moving heavy rain is the main issue:

Affecting: Auckland City — Waitakere — Franklin — Rodney — Albany

📡Radar Imagery: https://t.co/sZ6VGebxfy pic.twitter.com/QVPBviASmF

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) April 19, 2025

Set-ups like this are highly forecastable – as we warned days ago of the risk of intense thunderstorms and downpours like the one that hit Auckland and Hamilton and other North Island areas overnight/this morning. But on the day itself their precise placement – or when they will suddenly trigger – is much harder. WeatherWatch has had the alerting capability to automatically warn of these events through our mobile App for the past three years – but sadly MetService’s commercial side has so far made it impossible for us to achieve these alerts in NZ due to their commercial side and no open data (“free and open data is standard in the rest of the modern world).

But we can give you the big picture – and that’s what we do in this special Easter Saturday update as more instability continues, but there is some good news for holiday makers in some regions as longer dry spells come out, replacing the super wet forecast of just a couple days ago.

It’s been a long week (and night!) of work – but in this special Saturday update we have your big picture NZ forecast until Thursday. We’re back again on Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your Easter Weekend!