Rain and tide cause main street flood

SUDDEN DOWNPOUR: Flooding in Dargaville coincided with a high tide. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED

Freak-of-nature flooding in Dargaville saw a tense half hour for one bookshop owner, as water edged closer and closer to his door.

A high tide combined with a sudden downpour caused flooding along Victoria St at about 3pm yesterday.

Noel Moran of Moran's Bookshop said it had been many years since he had seen such bad flooding in the town.

"It was right over the footpath on the northern side of the main street and about a metre away from my door," he said.

Mr Moran said he relaxed as the tide turned and the flood quickly receded.

MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray agreed the event was probably caused by a combination of factors.

"At the [Northland rain monitoring] stations there haven't been significant figures. But even where you get 20 to 25 millimetres in an hour, it can have a significant impact on the way drainage works," she said. "There was an active line moving across there, so there were heavy downpours and clouds were more active than normal. We had a moderate risk of thunderstorms."

Dargaville's rain was expected to clear overnight, Ms Murray said.

Scattered showers were expected across Northland today, with more heavy rain unlikely.