Source: Radio New Zealand
Residents are without power as stormy weather continues to lash the North Island.
Thunderstorms, heavy rain and localised downpours are forecast to drench parts of the North Island today.
MetService has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, and Waikato.
A heavy rain warning has been issued for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua, with up to 110mm of rain expected on top of what has already fallen.
Further north, residents in Auckland’s Northcote Point were without power on Friday morning, after a stormy night.
The city was hit by heavy rain and thunderstorms overnight.
Energy company Vector has reported an outage at Northcote Point at about 6.30am on Friday. It said work was underway to resolve the issue, and power is expected to be restored between 10 and 11am on Friday.
It comes after reports of small tornadoes in the North Island on Thursday.
A tornado happened near Orewa, north of Auckland, at about 7pm.
The second reported tornado was seen near the Waikato town of Ōtorohanga.
Luke Care and his wife live in Maihiihi, near the town, and he said the tornado formed very quickly.
The first thing they noticed was the power going out.
“I looked out the window and holy smokes, there’s this giant tornado ripping through the neighbour’s property, it’s quite scary actually,” he said.
He told RNZ it looked like a small water spout at first, and when he grabbed his camera it accelerated and “formed just a full on tornado”.
The tornado carried on up into the mountains and then faded off in the distance, Care said.
Earlier on Friday, a severe storm warning was issued for near Kawerau, Rotoehu, Totoitoi and Lake Tarawerea, as well as Rerewhakaaitu.
The storms moved east-south-east later on Friday morning, and lay near Waiohau, Matahina, Murupara, Kopuriki, and Galatea.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
