Batten down the hatches

HERE IT COMES: The foreboding sight of dark storm clouds rolling towards Gisborne city. Gisborne Herald photographer Liam Clayton took this shot at Harry Barker Reserve shortly before the 30-minute blast of heavy rain, thunder and lightning.

TORRENTIAL downpours swept across Gisborne as a thunderstorm and associated cloudburst hammered the Flats early yesterday afternoon.

The downpour struck from about 1.50pm to 2.20pm and its intensity overwhelmed roof gutters and surface drains.

Gisborne District Council’s rain gauge at Stout Street recorded 15 millimetres from the cloudburst while a private gauge at Makaraka (emptied just before the thunderstorm) recorded 13.5mm in half an hour.

Another 10mm fell overnight.

Even more intense falls were reported in other locations across the Flats as the black clouds rolled over, lightning flashed and windows rattled as thunder exploded overhead.

Near Grays Bush, David Scott said he recorded 55mm and his neighbour, whose patio umbrella was carried away and ruined, got 44mm.

“It really seemed like we were in the eye of the storm. Our trees were blowing violently in complete circles as though they were in a washing machine.”

The thunderstorm swept in from the north, with rain gauges recording its violent progress from the Eastern Bay of Plenty, through the Waioeka Gorge and over the ranges into the Gisborne district.

Despite the intensity of the rainfall, the dry ground soon soaked it up and apart from some power outages, there have been no reports of damage.

Meanwhile, a deep low threatening severe weather has moved on to the west side of the North Island.

MetService has a severe weather watch in place for the district, specifically for strong wind, but there are no official warnings in place for Gisborne.

The watch is for east to north-east gale-force winds, which MetService says may become severe in exposed places in Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and the lower North Island from midnight tonight to dawn tomorrow.