Weather: Some Northland properties still without power after severe gales

The wind blew a large water tank off a truck on SH12 near Dargaville on Thursday afternoon. Photo / Sean G

Some Kaipara and Whangārei District residents are still without power after severe gales ripped through Northland.

The southwesterly winds yesterday evening were gusting up to 102km/h and were some of the strongest winds in the last 20 months, according to MetService.

Meteorologist Dan Corrigan said the strong winds were channelled between a low pressure system crossing the country just south of Whangārei on Thursday afternoon and higher pressure near Cape Rēinga.

The strongest wind gust recorded was 102km/h at Hokianga Harbour at 3pm on Thursday, followed by 98km/h at Cape Rēinga and 83km/h at Whangārei Airport.

The Whangārei winds were the second-highest recorded since October 2023, said Corrigan.

The wild winds caused several callouts for Dargaville Volunteer Fire Brigade, said chief fire officer Jason Campbell.

At about 4pm, a truck and trailer carrying large water tanks was caught by the wind on State Highway 12, just north of Dargaville.

The wind buffeted the truck, causing the tanks to blow off the trailer on to the side of the road.

NZ Transport Agency recorded the highway as being blocked for several hours, but Campbell said the tanks were off the road.

Just after 5pm, the crew were called to a house in Ruawai where a roof was partially lifting off a house.

“It was catching the wind, we secured it back down,” said Campbell. “There was no damage inside that we’re aware of.”

Dargaville Volunteer Fire Brigade were also called to a tree down on Poutō Rd, which they were able to clear.

In all, Northland fire crews were called to 10 weather-related events between 4pm and 8pm on Thursday.

Northpower crews work in the rain and wind to try and restore power to Northland homes. Photo / Northpower

Strong winds cut power to about 8000 customers in Northland last night – down to 512 in the morning and 40 this afternoon.

About 17 households were without power in Kaiwaka and 23 northeast of Whangārei on Russell Rd, Matheson Rd and Peach Orchard Rd.

Northpower expected to have restored power by the end of today.

Despite about 140 customers being without power in the Far North this morning, Top Energy’s website showed no outages as of 3pm.

MetService forecasts southwest to southeast winds in Northland over the next week but they will not be as strong as Thursday, he said.

Temperatures will be slightly lower than normal, with overnight lows of 6C, but a high pressure will bring fine to cloudy conditions.

“It will be welcome after this windy and wet weather,” he said.

Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.