Fog has caused delays at Auckland Airport, with 15 domestic flights cancelled and 30 more delayed.
Fog restrictions were lifted from the airport at 7.14am before being reinstated just after 9am.
The thick blanket of fog is due to move away before midday, making way for thunderstorms that are expected to sweep the top of the North Island today at rush hour.
It brings the renewed threat of downpours and powerful wind gusts.
A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, northern Coromandel Peninsula and the western areas of Waikato, Waitomo and Taranaki from 4pm.
A MetService spokesperson said there is a moderate risk of thunderstorms in Northland this morning.
That extends down the North Island into the Auckland region early this afternoon.
Overnight and into this morning, there were a number of ⛈️thunderstorms and lightning strikes about the north of the North Island, as well as areas of heavy rain, captured in this Rain Radar video 📡
— MetService (@MetService) June 9, 2025
While the risk of thunder and lightning has eased today ⛅, MetService is… pic.twitter.com/7IQrHn62wH
MetService says there will be a moderate risk of thunderstorms for the Coromandel Peninsula, western Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Waitomo, northern Taranaki and western Tasman this evening.
“These thunderstorms may bring localised heavy rain with intensities of 10 to 25mm/h and strong wind gusts of 80km/h.”
Forecaster Silvia Martino told the Herald the affected regions were expecting heavy rain in a short period of time.
“It might be nothing, nothing, nothing and then big bursts of rain for a short time,” she said.
“Gusts of 80-90km/h are quite a bit more than you would see every day so you might have impacts associated with that.”
Martino pointed to fronts coming in from the northwest as the cause of the bad weather.
“They bring down warm, moist air from the north that is more unstable than the air around us,” she said.
“It’s easier for thunderstorms to blow up when you’ve got that warmer, moister air.”
Looking ahead to Wednesday, a moist northwesterly flow is expected to bring fronts and possible thunderstorms to the North Island and the upper South Island.
MetService said there is “low confidence” that the North Island, from Taranaki across the central high country to the eastern Bay of Plenty, will experience warning amounts of rain.
The same applies to the Tararua Range, Buller and the far west of Tasman.
More active weather 🌧️⚡️ is set to impact parts of New Zealand on Tuesday.
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) June 9, 2025
Be sure to keep tabs of any possible watches & warnings with @MetService. pic.twitter.com/kkoHyid2kz
On Thursday and Friday, MetService’s severe weather outlook shows a “complex area of low pressure” is expected to lie about central New Zealand.
“Fronts and troughs associated with this system are likely to bring significant amounts of rain to some areas, but warning amounts are unlikely.”
Today’s predicted flurry of thunderstorms will be the second in more than three days for Auckland residents.
The city was under a thunderstorm watch between 10.30pm Sunday and 1.30am Monday. Residents awoke to more thunderstorms.
More than 5000 lightning strikes were recorded over the upper North Island and associated offshore areas from Sunday night. Many of those strikes occurred in and around the Auckland region.
5000+ lightning strikes ⚡️ were observed over the upper North Island & adjacent waters from 12 am to 7 am Monday.
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) June 8, 2025
Why the thunderstorms?
One key reason is a strong temperature gradient (change in temp over distance).
Near 0°C over the central NI, 16-17° in the Far North. pic.twitter.com/fs7fOa7Tg5
Niwa said the lightning strikes were recorded between midnight and 7am.