Fine weather with a chilly spell in store for Northland

Parts of Northland received up to 143mm of rain and experienced 620 lightning strikes during low pressure. Photo / John Stone

Fine weather is forecast for the rest of this week in Northland with a couple of chilly days following a deluge and hundreds of lightning strikes in some areas.

Statistics provided by MetService show areas between Hikurangi and the Bay of Islands experienced 620 lightning strikes between 6pm and midnight on Saturday.

There were 402 between 7pm and 9pm that day.

Those areas received up to 143mm of rain between midday on Friday and 10.40am today. The most rain in a short time fell at Dugmores Rock in Ngunguru which received 71mm in just three hours to 11pm on Saturday.

MetService weather forecaster Cameron Coutts said a complicated low pressure system over Northland was expected to move away by midday tomorrow before the southerlies arrived.

He said daytime temperatures in the high teens and overnight lows of between 8C and 9C would be experienced in Northland on Wednesday and on Thursday.

Coastal areas would be 1C to 2C warmer because of exposed winds and sea conditions, he said.

Coutts said temperatures should increase slightly with a high pressure system moving in on Friday while mostly fine weather was expected over the weekend with isolated showers.

Other areas around Northland that received a downpour were 85mm in Kaikohe in the 12 hours to midday on Saturday and 79mm in Kerikeri.

Between 6am and 7am on Saturday, Kaikohe had 32.6mm of rain, Kerikeri 21.6mm and
Ohaeawai 23.5mm.

Coutts said wind gusts of 100km/h pummelled Marsden Pt, Tutukaka and Cape Reinga on Saturday.

Lightning caused brief power outages that lasted less than five minutes in Ngunguru, Paparoa, Parua Bay, Pataua, Tutukaka and Matapouri largely between 8.30pm to 12.30am yesterday.

No lightning strikes impacted the Top Energy network in the Far North District.

There was one outage in Towai, north of Whangarei, but it was not related to lightning.

Northland Civil Defence was monitoring the weather and reported no major issues.