Light show as lightning strikes Auckland's Sky Tower

Today's stormy weather has produced a strike of lightning that's managed to hit the tip of Auckland's Sky Tower.

The lightning strike was caught on camera by Linley Kerr at Alaska Construction in Freemans Bay just before 1pm today.

As the rain pours, video shows the lightning lighting up the sky and projecting straight down on the tower.

Straight after the strike, a massive thunder clap can be heard booming through the sky.

@nzherald #lightning #Auckland pic.twitter.com/qQwPJpi0Aj

— Drewboy (@DrewboyNZ) June 5, 2019

The Sky Tower is fully earthed to prevent danger from lightning, with a dynasphere on top of the mast to conduct lightning during storms.

Today's storms have so far seen tornado's rip off roofs, destroy decks and damage up to 15 homes in the Far North.

The storm has since begun to move across the city with blue sky slowly appearing after the lightning show at 1pm today. Photo / Supplied

Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) Muriwhenua area commander Wipari Henwood says 15 homes have been damaged, mostly superficially. Two homes closest to State Highway 10 have been badly damaged with roofs torn off and multiple windows smashed.

They have been declared uninhabitable by a Far North District Council building inspector.

A "mini-tornado" has also hit Kaiwaka, which is about 100km north of Auckland.

The weather was also affecting flights around the country including Wellington with disruptions likely this afternoon.

According to MetService, these thunderstorms may bring heavy rain of 10-25mm, and strong wind gusts of 90-110km/h, along with a low risk of localised downpours of 25-40mm.

"However, there is moderate risk that some of the thunderstorms may become severe, bring localised damaging gusts greater than 110 km/h and localised tornadoes, especially to northern and eastern areas."