Lightning impressive but knocks out power to Northland homes

The MetService Lightning radar just before 11am today shows the number of strikes.

UPDATE 2pm: A lightning strike hit Kamo sub-station about 11.20am today. It caused a circuit breaker feeder to fail and as a result 8000 people in Kamo and further North for one minute.

NorthPower spokesman Steve MacMillan said workers were assessing the damage but must people across Whangarei and Kaipara had their electricity supply restored.

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Lightning has caused multiple minor power outages in Kaipara and Whangarei Districts today.

Nearly 8000 lighting strikes hit the upper North Island this morning as a thunder storm rumbled across Northland.

Around 1000 Northpower customers are believed to be without power but that figure is changing constantly as fuses are put back in and potential damage to transformers is assessed.

However, for safety reasons, no line repair work will be undertaken until the lightning storm has passed.

While Whangarei has had small outages, lightning has affected more people from south of the city to Kaiwaka.

At Tinopai, 409 customers were without power earlier this morning although 100 have now been restored.

About 460 customers were affected around Aranga and Donnellys Crossing. Multiple lines crews are working in the worst impacted areas to assess and repair damage.