Whanganui weather: More heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast

Whanganui is expected to experience more heavy rain and stormy weather on Wednesday and into Thursday. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

MetService warns Whanganui residents they may not have seen the last of the stormy weather, with more intense periods anticipated.

From Tuesday night to this morning, the Whanganui District received between 22-53mm of rain in 12 hours.

MetService’s Flat Hills station had 53mm over 12 hours and Rānana received 17mm between 6am-7am, which MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said was “quite a lot of rain for a short space of time”.

Powerco media spokeswoman Rochelle West said hundreds of homes in the area experienced power outages during the stormy period.

A branch going through power lines caused an outage for 302 customers in the Parikino area from 2.51am, 136 customers lost power in the Taihape area after lines came down on Pukeokahu Rd and 39 customers in the Brunswick area lost power.

West said the cause of the Brunswick outage was under investigation but it was believed to be weather-related.

“There were also a number of individual customer faults in Whanganui area at the time, also believed to be related to the storm,” West said.

At 9.45am, the winds at Santoft Forest were 61km/h and Whanganui Airport registered 50km/h.

Makgabutlane said the impact of the weather was likely due to the intensity of rain in short periods.

She warned people in the Whanganui area that more severe thunderstorms were expected today, heading into Thursday.

“Unfortunately, today is looking like quite an active weather day; this afternoon and evening we are expecting a second wave of weather to move through once again,” she said.

“We are looking at more rainfall and thunderstorms, with the potential for downpours of intense periods of rain.

“There’s also the possibility of large hail.”

About 2pm, 4.7mm of rainfall is expected.

Makgabutlane advised people in the area to keep an eye on the forecast and rain radar.

“If there is that chance of severe thunderstorms then that information will be provided and a thunderstorm warning will be issued,” she said.

Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.