All hail and thunder as wild weather rains down

The driveway of this Te Teko property was blanketed in hailstones yesterday afternoon.

Rotorua and Bay of Plenty residents could only wait with anticipation as the skies grew dark and the temperature fell around them yesterday afternoon.

While the build-up was gradual, when the storm finally hit about 3.45pm, people living on the Rangitaiki Plains were treated to thunder, lightning, hail and torrential rain within a short space of time.

First up was the thunder that began rolling minutes before lightning ripped across the sky and then hailstones rained down on Rotorua, Te Teko, Edgecumbe and Otakiri. Onepu man Dave Erdbeer was visiting a friend near Te Teko yesterday afternoon and knew a storm was brewing.

"The sky went pretty black then the thunder and lightning started," Mr Erdbeer said.

"We knew hail was coming when it got so cold but the amount that came down was not expected."

He said hailstones between 8mm and 10mm wide bucketed down for about 15 minutes, blanketing lawns, covering decks and making a racket.

"We were out there making snowballs - it looked like it had just snowed."

After the hail, the heavens opened and the rain poured down while the thunder and lightning continued.

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A lightning strike also took out the only set of traffic lights in Kawerau.

Horizon Energy network general manager Peter Middlemiss said they were down for about an hour before staff restored power. Surrounding homes and the SCA Mill were still without electricity late yesterday afternoon before the 11,000 volt fault was repaired.

- additional reporting Dana Kinita