Strong winds - up to 160km/h - were responsible for fanning large grass fires, downing power lines and even tipping over a large truck on the road to Taupo at the weekend.
Emergency fire services were out in force across Hawke's Bay yesterday with all available resources drawn on to battle numerous fires in the region's dry, windy conditions.
Metservice meteorologist Sarah Sparks said the strongest wind gust was measured in Mahia at 159km/h, while Napier and Hastings experienced gusts of about 80km/h.
"The weather still shows strong north westerlies that will reach up to 100km/h in open spaces tonight," she said yesterday.
The wild weather did not bring much rain with it and the outlook for today will not ease fears of a looming drought in Hawke's Bay.
Ms Sparks said although the Bay could expect some cloud and scattered showers to develop in the ranges this morning it would not be the relief many farmers are looking for.
"There are showers tomorrow but not high rainfall numbers unfortunately, and not for long, sustained periods," she said.
Emergency services swarmed to the Bridge Pa area yesterday as a large grass fire covered 15 hectares of land on Raukawa Rd.
Firefighters battled the flames, which left several paddocks blackened, from 2.28pm and were dealing with the fire into the early evening.
Central Fire Communications spokesman Murray Dunbar said Hawke's Bay's emergency resources were heavily drawn on throughout the day; with assistance from Palmerston being called to help battle the fires.
Mr Dunbar said strong winds throughout the Hawke's Bay region increased the difficulty of managing the fires.
"It makes it much more difficult because fire spreads faster and the ground is also very dry," he said.
A second fire on a hillside in Puketapu, measuring 300m by 500m, was attended by six New Zealand fire services appliances and three rural fire service appliances, who were called to the scene at 3.14pm.
Traffic on State Highway 5 was also disrupted when a large truck was blown on to it's side yesterday in an area that is known as the 'Windy Gap'.
Police were alerted to a truck blocking the south-bound lane of the road at 11.30am. The road was closed until about 3pm when the truck was towed back to Napier.
Police said diesel had been leaking from the truck and the driver was not injured, but was "shaken up".
Fire services were also called to a grass fire on Endsleigh Rd in Havelock North at 1pm yesterday which blazed close to residential houses.
Two appliances from Havelock North, one from Napier and another from Taradale attended the fire emergency.
Unison power lines company relationship manager Danny Gough said pockets of power lines around Hawke's Bay were damaged in the strong winds.
Mr Gough said although 140 customers experienced outages in Clive, Havelock North and rural areas, the damage done was good considering the conditions.
"We actually did pretty good, the networks held up pretty well considering the wind," he said.
While he couldn't confirm if any fires in the region had been started by trees coming into contact with downed lines, Mr Gough said it's safe to say that given the windy weather some trees and branches may have come down and made contact with power lines.
"We always try to work with landowners in regards to the space between trees and powerlines ... to ensure the trees are kept well away from lines," he said.
Mr Gough said Unison crews would be working throughout the night to restore power and said any downed lines should be treated as live and with caution.
Mr Dunbar said there had been much activity right throughout the eastern region of the North Island; fire services attending storm damages in Wellington and a house fire in Fielding as well as the several large fires in Hawke's Bay.
Mr Dunbar stressed the importance of checking the fire conditions before burning on www.checkitsalright.nz.
Hastings District Council currently has a total fire ban, with all permits previously approved now suspended.
The fire ban prohibits the lighting of all fires in the open air, fireworks, fires on the beach, charcoal or wood barbecues, pizza ovens, braziers, and chimenea, traditional cooking fires, hangi and umu.