House struck by lightning in Tuesday's thunderstorm

Bolts of lightning streak across the sky during a short but violent storm that hit the district on Tuesday night and also featured heavy rain and hail. This shot is from video footage taken by Neal Clayton at Wheatstone Road. A Riverside Road house was struck by lightning while reports indicate there was minimal damage to crops.

Lightning from Tuesday night’s severe thunderstorm struck a house with a family inside and narrowly missed a car with people in it.

Firefighters were called to the house in Riverside Road — near the Waimata Cheese factory— that was hit by lightning at around 8.30pm.

“The people in the house told us they heard a loud banging noise when the lightning bolt struck their home,” Senior Station Officer Bernie Bull said. “The family said the lights in the house flashed on and off a few times and then went out.”

The two adults and two teenagers told the Fire and Emergency NZ crew they were “a bit shaken” at the time.

“But they were “pretty calm by the time we got there,” SSO Bull said.

No damage was caused to the house, apart from the electricity supply.

“They isolated the power after the lightning struck and called us,” SSO Bull said.

“We used a thermal camera to check the roof void and other parts of the house, but found nothing of concern. We recommended they keep the power isolated overnight until an electrician could check the situation.”

The lightning storm also produced a close call for SSO Bull’s daughter.

The 13-year-old told him she had been in a car parked outside a house in Grant Road (not far from the Riverside Road house) when a lightning bolt hit quite close to the vehicle.

“She said they saw a flash just outside the car and they were pretty shaken up by it,” he said. “So much so they went inside the house.”

Two bouts of hail came with the storm.

An Aberdeen Road resident said he was standing at the doorway of his porch when a hailstone hit the nova roof above him.

“I heard a loud crack and what was left of a hail stone landed at my feet. It ploughed right through the nova, leaving a jagged hole about twice the size of a 50-cent piece.”

He later found another smaller hole elsewhere in the porch roof.

Reports indicate the hail was quite localised. Some areas of the city and district missed out completely.

The hail caused only minimal crop damage.

Coxco managing director Omi Badsar said their early season squash crops escaped unscathed.

A spokesman for the apple sector locally said there had been no reports of substantial damage in the apple crops.

“But there will be some isolated areas where some damage and minor crop loss has occurred,” he said.

NZ Kiwifruit growers regional representive Tim Tietjen said they had not received any reports of damage with their crops.

“Nothing serious anyway, which is a massive relief. With fruit-set under way any hail would have been devastating,” Mr Tietjen said.

“Fortunately all growers contacted have not been impacted, which is great news.

“It could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Maize crops seemed to have come through it OK as well, with no reports of significant damage.

A company spokesman said they were so far behind with their planting programme anyway, and  the young crops could handle a bit of hail.

At the time The Herald went to print

last night, no reports had been received about the impact, if any, on grape crops and other crops.