Heavy rain has hit Auckland amid thunderstorm warnings on November 30, 2025.
Video / NZ Herald
Another band of thunderstorms and heavy rain is forecast to batter Auckland later tonight, after an afternoon of torrential rain.
The second dose of heavy rain comes just hours after a severe thunderstorm warning was lifted for Auckland and several other northern regions.
About 5pm today, cars were spottedtraversing surface flooding that reached door height in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga.
MetService meteorologist Juliane Bergdoltsaid Aucklanders will only get a short-lived reprieve because the incoming band is expected to hit at midnight tonight and continue into early Monday morning.
“There’ll be a little bit of a break in between, and then we’ll see another period of heavy rain with possible thunderstorms late this evening,” she said.
“There’s not a lot of lightning with the [first] front. Just very, very heavy rain. We are looking at some stronger winds, with some gusts up to about 70km/h,” Bergdoltsaid.
Flooding near Onehunga, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
MetService meteorologist Surprise Mhlongo said the next rainfall band is associated with the same weather system that impacted earlier today.
“It’s just going to be rainfall bands passing through,” Mhlongo said.
“There’s possibility of heavy rain at times, possibility of thunderstorms at times. But whether we’re going to have a similar situation to the one we’ve had a couple of hours ago, that we can only tell when we get closer to the time.”
The severe rain earlier tonight disrupted the Auckland FC game against the Newcastle Jets.
The heaviest rain swept through the last 20 minutes of the match, but it was not the deciding factor in Auckland’s 2-1 loss.
The field was quickly turned into a slippery hazard for the players as water pooled at their feet.
Wild weather throughout NZ
It’s not just Aucklanders who need to keep an eye on the approaching weather, with a number of severe weather watches and warnings in place around the country.
MetService said a pressure system moving across the South Island caused heavy rain warnings in the Westland ranges, the headwaters of the Canterbury lakes, Kahurangi National Park and the southern regions of Fiordland.
Fiordland south of Dusky Sound is under a heavy rain watch for much of the day between 9am to 9pm.
The ranges of Tasman west of Motueka and Buller north of Karamea are under a heavy rain watch from noon until 8pm this evening.
“This is due to a lot of moist air brought by the low being wrung out like a sponge as it is forced over the ranges,” MetService said.
“We then have strong wind watches across large swathes of the eastern South Island and Wellington, again due to the low-pressure system passing over.”
The capital is under a strong wind watch from 3pm to 11pm, with northerly winds potentially approaching severe gale strength in exposed places and a moderate chance of being upgraded to a warning.
Canterbury High Country north of Twizel, and Canterbury Plains near the foothills, have a strong wind watch in place from 2pm Sunday until 2am Monday.
“In addition, there is the risk of thunderstorms across the western parts of both islands as the warm air mass brought in by the low is not ‘stable’, ie it is primed to produce heavy showers given a small push.”
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