Stormy weather causes chaos in Auckland

Heavy rain has flooded a laboratory at Auckland City Hospital and a number of houses around the city tonight.

Lightning has also struck a house in Titirangi and a fallen tree has blocked a main road in Hunua.

Wet weather has hammered parts of the country today, with Civil Defence responding to severe flooding in Dunedin that has blocked roads, closed schools and required people to use sandbags to protect their properties.

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Rain is now causing issues around Auckland.

Offices of a first floor laboratory at Auckland City Hospital, in Grafton, flooded after heavy rain hit the city this afternoon.

The Fire Service was called to the hospital about 5.30pm, said shift manager Jaron Phillips.

He said a number of fire appliances were responding to the incident and sending equipment to pump out the water.

An Auckland District Health Board spokesman said the flooding was as a result of building work.

An extra floor was being added above the laboratory he said.

"It's under control now."

Services there were not affected.

The Fire Service was also called to Vauxhall Rd in Devonport about 5.10pm, where a home's roof had collapsed under the heavy rain.

"The ceiling has fallen in and collapsed in the lounge area of the house due to rain," he said. "There were people inside at the time but no injuries."

A tree also fell across Hunua Rd about 5.30pm and was not cleared for close to two hours, causing traffic disruptions.

At 5.45pm the Fire Service was called to a house in Papatoetoe, where another home's roof was leaking and causing flooding inside.

Just before 6pm, Mr Phillips said a house in Titirangi had also been struck by lightning.

He said there had been an extremely high volume of calls to weather-related incidents today, but mainly for the Dunedin area.

"It's been an extremely busy day dealing with calls for Dunedin, but Auckland and Northland [have[ not really [been busy] - just a handful."

Police Northern Communications Shift Inspector Chris Tate said a number of minor traffic accidents were also being caused by surface flooding around the city.

Motorists were warned to take care in the conditions.

According to MetService forecasts, 9.2mm of rain was expected between 6pm and 8pm.

That was due to subside until 10pm, when a heavy 14.2mm downpour was forecast.

Severe weather warnings were in place for bursts of heavy rain for northern and central New Zealand and for gales in the upper North Island overnight.