Auckland fire crews run off their feet with flooding-related call outs following downpours

Last night's thunderstorm produced lightning that lit up the sky in Auckland, including this lightning bolt photographed at Waiuku around 8pm. Photo / Supplied

Auckland's Fire and Emergency crews are being inundated with weather-related call outs from the Pukekohe area, following a wild 24 hours of weather across the region.

Shortly after 3pm a spokesman from Fire and Emergency Northern Region said they had nine call-outs related to the weather, in the past half-hour alone.

"All of these were related to properties flooding - garages and homes," he said.

Crews in the south Auckland area were being assisted by a handful of other teams - from Waiuku and Balmoral among other areas.

A thunderstorm warning remained in place for northen New Zealand this afternoon."We have more thunderstorms across the North Island this afternoon, some quite intense," Weather Watch said in a tweet.

"Not as busy as yesterday though. Sunday looks quieter."

We have more thunderstorms across the North Island this afternoon, some quite intense. Localised Flash flooding risks around each of the coloured dots you see too. Not as busy as yesterday though. Sunday looks quieter.

NZ's Live lightning Tracker: https://t.co/Q2ZwYvbdxk pic.twitter.com/JYDpBp4dYD

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) December 15, 2018

The weather madness follows a night of stormy weather across the Auckland region.

The Metservice recorded 27,000 lightning strikes between Northland and the Central North Island in the 24 hours to midnight.

Lightning last night lit up skies, cut power, disrupted flights and dumped "crazy huge" hourly rainfall amounts in some parts of the city.

Meteorologist Melissa Sterwijk said 2600 lightning strikes were recorded in Auckland in the 24 hours to 7am today, 1400 of those occurring over land.

Downpours of 25mm to 35mm an hour were also recorded in parts of south Auckland during the height of the storm between 9pm and 10pm.

In Otahuhu 25mm was recorded and at the Botanic Gardens in Manurewa 35mm fell in an hour, followed by 15mm in the following hour - the two-hour total of 50mm was 5 per cent of Auckland's average annual rainfall of around 1m.

Waiheke Island also received 25mm in an hour, Sterwijk said.

"It's a crazy huge number ... having that in an hour is like cats and dogs falling out of the sky."