Meteorologist Brian Mercer said that at one stage on Saturday rain was falling at a peak intensity of 18mm an hour, which was "quite a significant amount".
"That was [Saturday] morning. Then overnight was more persistent with no particular intense rainfall. Although we did have a thunderstorm about 3 o'clock that could have brought some heavy falls associated with that," he said.
Mr Mercer said the rain was the result of a complex low system moving across the country, which had some warm air containing a lot of moisture.
"That's what is causing that rainfall," he said.
"That's moving away to the east now but there are still some scrappy bits around."
Mr Mercer said the rain would likely make way for fog in some sheltered areas around Tauranga this morning before clearing and becoming "quite nice" with long, fine spells.
He warned of scattered showers around the region tomorrow "but you'd have to be pretty unlucky to get caught in one for any length of time".
Fog was expected in sheltered areas again tomorrow morning and showers were expected to fall in the afternoon, turning to rain at night and leading into a wet Wednesday.
The rain is expected to clear by Thursday and Friday, leaving just cloudy days for the end of the week.
Weekend rainfall in Tauranga
Saturday:
73.6mm
Sunday:
3.9mm
Source - MetService
