Start of summer brings rain and lightning to Whanganui

A dark, gloomy Whanganui morning followed Saturday night's prolonged and spectacular electrical storm. photo / Lewis Gardner

Some of the severe weather that battered Wellington was also felt in Whanganui with almost 700 lightning strikes recorded in the wider region over the weekend.

The 680 strikes in the 24 hours to 11am on Sunday contributed to the 18,000 lightning strikes recorded on New Zealand.

Around 109,000 lightning strikes in total were recorded on land and the surrounding waters of New Zealand during the same period.

MetService meteorologist Andy Best said it had been very unstable for the first week of summer.

"On Thursday we had quite strong northwesterly flow over the South Island and rather humid conditions over the North Island with low cloud and drizzle, from Northland all the way down to Taumarunui and even the high country of Whanganui too.

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"During the course of Friday more strong northwesterly flow made it up the South Island and there were severe thunderstorm warnings for places like Hokitika.

"Those thunderstorms moved up with a cold front during Saturday and we've seen quite a lot of thunderstorm activity in Wellington [on Saturday night], and that front is slowly moving up the North Island."

A severe thunderstorm watch was in place for Whanganui over the weekend while a heavy rain warning was in place for Taranaki.

Best said only 11mm of rain was recorded in Whanganui from around 11am Saturday to 11am Sunday, while Palmerston North received 12mm and Raetihi saw 12mm.

The figures pale in comparison to rain felt in the Wellington region where Porirua received 63mm and 35mm in Lower Hutt, which caused flooding.

Although no significant power outages were felt in Whanganui, 105 properties in Mangamahu and 21 properties in Hunterville were without power yesterday.

Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said two outages inland from Whanganui were also under investigation.

While rain and lightning were factors of Whanganui's weekend, a bright red sun was also spotted setting on Friday evening which was an after-effect of fires across the Tasman.

"Those fires in eastern Australia have been passing up the smoke and it's travelled right across.

"Nearly all of the North Island was covered in smoke [on Saturday] and until we get a clearance the skies will still have that smoke."

Best said a southerly is expected to clear the skies and push out any remaining smoke today.

Showers are expected to eventually clear today and become fine in the city while the high country will see "a few persisting" showers, Best said.

"It's a good outlook to the start of the work week."