Weather watch: Thunderstorms on the way

Thunderstorms are expected on Friday night.

It's quite a sight of beauty - a large spiralling low out in the Tasman Sea, something we haven't seen in quite some time.

For several months large highs have dominated the Tasman, bringing us dreary sou'westerlies and very dry conditions. But this week that all changed. An intense low pressure system developed one week ago north of New Zealand and fast became a storm.

The low teased Northland for days with brooding skies and gale force winds then finally moved in for the kill on Wednesday, attacking the half-year long drought. However it failed to deliver widespread rain. Many regions did get some good rainfall totals - some emailed to WeatherWatch were up around 80mm for the week long event, but others received rainfall totals only in the teens.

As I've been saying for a couple of months now, the dry weather won't ease in one big go - the droughts will slowly be chipped away at by lows like this. I'm pretty confident we'll be out of a drought by June or very close to it, especially with the way the weather patterns are changing.

But that doesn't mean we're out of the woods. The ground below is dry, from several months of almost no rain. It will take many months for underground water supplies to build back up. If we have a dry winter then that will put huge pressure on waterways come next summer.

However lets not get too gloomy - these are only possibilities and for now we can enjoy the beautiful sight of a swirling giant low back out in the Tasman Sea. To me it's almost like seeing an old friend.

This low also brought damaging winds this week - cutting power to Auckland on Wednesday afternoon then delivering the same blow to the South Island's West Coast on Thursday morning. Estimates are that winds were 120km/h at times and while that's not unusual for the South Island it is unusual when it comes from the north or north east - which is why it was so damaging. One visitor at WeatherWatch described the wind as a 747 it was so loud, and that the winds felled trees that were around when "Noah was building his ark".

It's not over yet either, with the low churning up a mix of cold and warm air - and that means thunderstorms. I think the best shot for thunderstorms will be Friday evening or night in western parts of the North Island. However, just like the rain this week, I don't think they will be widespread...so some isolated pockets should see some activity.

Don't forget to check out our Lightning Tracker. It's free to look at and runs "live".

Hopefully this will present dry areas with some more solid downpours.

Enjoy the humidity and heat... this Indian summer won't last forever!