Wind watch in place after thunderstorms

The MetService lightning radar just before 11am shows the number of strikes this morning.

A wind watch remains in place for most of the North Island this evening following a bout of thunderstorms this morning.

WeatherWatch forecasters said they detected around 20,000 lightning strikes this morning after thunderstorms hit Northland and brushed Auckland.

The thunderstorms later moved out to sea and cleared, the forecasters said.

Strong winds were expected to move in to Auckland overnight, peaking tomorrow morning and easing as the day progressed, WeatherWatch said.

MetService duty forecaster Nicole Ranger said a weather watch was in place for strong winds across the North Island this evening.

"Anywhere north of Kapiti, it's expected that for this evening through to tomorrow morning we've got gusts [forecast] up to 110km/h."

The thunderstorms that hit the north of the North Island this morning had now moved out to the east of the country, but there was a possibility they could be replaced with more moving up the country this evening, she said.

"We can see that there's quite a few strikes out to the west [of the North Island] at the moment, but it's just a possibility of thunderstorms at the moment -- they certainly won't be anywhere near as bad as they were this morning."

Tomorrow, most of the wild weather was expected to clear, with the forecast strong winds due to diminish in the morning, Ms Ranger said.

However, a strong westerly flow would remain, bringing showers to western areas of the country, she said. Eastern areas of the country should remain fine.

"Basically we've had some very, very cold air aloft, so that means we've got quite unstable conditions -- that's kind of what's been triggering all these heavy showers and thunderstorms."

Friday would be mainly fine for most of the country aside from scattered showers in central areas, Ms Ranger said.

Rain and showers were forecast for the south and western areas of the South Island.