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"For Whenuapai, which is a very sheltered location, that really ranks up there," Ms Griffiths said.
She added: "Western places, with cold air coming in, always get hammered, and they did. The western areas got the bang, more of the thunder and lightning and hail of the thunderstorms."
Manukau Heads was hit with the strongest winds, with gusts of almost 130km/h howling through, while Auckland Airport recorded gusts of 100km/h and Waiheke Island around 120km/h.
The "impressive" thunderstorms were caused by a cold front moving into the region, Ms Griffiths said.
"This is what we call a cold pool of air coming on to the country. Cold pools are often famous for having hail and small, squat, stubby thunderstorms, where it's windy and it's cold, and you get a lot of lightning and thunder on the change.
"So people will have noticed what it feels like temperature-wise in Auckland today - back to winter for a few more hours."
Between 10pm and dawn 70 thunderstorms struck in the vicinity of Auckland, with 40 of those over the Tasman Sea, and 30 over land.
However, the worst of the stormy weather has passed, Ms Griffiths said, with today gradually settling and improving.
"The general message is it's easing, so the general watch for wind will probably go by lunchtime. A gradual improvement today," she said.
"Aucklanders will be very happy about that, they've had a bit of a rough few days."
The Fire Service said it was not called out to any serious weather-related incidents overnight, with only a couple of alarm activations in Auckland, and some minor jobs in Cambridge.
One man reported his house in East Tamaki had been struck by lightning around 2am. Tenant Jason told TV One's Breakfast programme that he heard a loud noise, followed by the house rumbling.
"I came outside to tiles everywhere and a 2 metre hole in the roof," he said.
"It was loud, I wasn't sure what was happening, and then the roof came down."
Images showed tiles had come off the roof of the property, uncovering a black plastic lining underneath.