Wairarapa residents were briefly buffeted by rain and hail yesterday afternoon.
MetService issued a severe thunderstorm watch notice yesterday morning before escalating it to an official warning in the mid-afternoon after the weather system – which had hit Canterbury early in the morning, where it flooded houses, delayed flights, and caused power outages – travelled up the eastern coast of New Zealand, battering towns and cities along the way.
Wellington residents reported heavy rain and hail that settled in thick layers on the ground and described the storm as “short, but rather violent”.
The experience of Wairarapa residents was much the same, with one Greytown resident describing the heavy rain, thunder, and lightning that hit the town at about 4pm as “intense and quite sudden”.
Another person said the sky above Carterton looked like a “black hole” as the storm passed overhead.
The wild weather system reached Masterton shortly before 4.30pm, with 8.6mm of rain being dumped and the temperature dropping from 14.1 degrees Celsius to 8.3degC in a matter of minutes.
At press time the severe thunderstorm had moved past Tīnui to Castlepoint, Owāhanga, and Mataikona.
A severe thunderstorm was in place for Tararua District from 6pm to 9pm last night, while the district also had a strong wind watch in place from 11pm tonight until 8am tomorrow morning.
Was very intense that’s mother nature for you. NOT anything to do with climate change. Just a thought if we had the solar power area’s going and the panels? Like in America they would be scrap? No power 😕 thank 🙏 it can still be stopped by our new government.