A severe weather watch is in place for Northern Hawke's Bay until tomorrow afternoon with torrential rain spreading across the region.
According to MetService at about 8:15pm Hastings had already recorded 15mms of rain in the last hour.
Meteorologist Sarah Sparks said that was a substantial amount of rain to fall in a short time period and ended 10 consecutive days of dry weather for Hastings.
Meanwhile Napier had only recorded 4.6mms and Waipawa just 2.6mms at 8:15pm.
Wairoa was yet to receive any rain.