Hail on the front deck of the Leech house in Waipu. Photo / Dulcie Leech
Hail on the front deck of the Leech house in Waipu. Photo / Dulcie Leech
Up to 200 lightning strikes in Northland brought a heavy hail storm that sent students of a primary school racing outside to have fun in their version of "snow".
Parts of Northland were blanketed in hail after a spate of lightning strikes and intermittent rain yesterday.MetService said that from today, Northlanders would have respite from the southerly chill, with daytime temperatures forecast to be 19C and around mid-teens at night.
Roads in Mangakahia were blanketed by hail brought by thunderstorm.
Parts of Waipu and areas in and around Mangakahia particularly got a heavy blanket of hail yesterday morning.Students of Mangakahia Area School just outside Whangarei were the biggest beneficiaries of the wild weather, with the hail hitting about 12.45pm and pounding on the school's roof.
Students of Mangakahia Area School making the most of hail that blanketed their school ground during class time. Photo / Supplied
The students loved playing in the icy fall, with the schoolground completely blanketed with hail, as were surrounding roads and fields.
"Some kids said it was their best school day ever. They were out playing and treating the hail like snow and tried building snow castles but they wouldn't stick together," principal Phil Reynolds said.
"They've never seen it before and they're absolutely loving it. The teachers released them early for lunch because they wanted to go out and play."
So much hail was very unusual, he said.He has not witnessed this amount in the four years he has spent at the school.
Rymona Tuhiwai-Pou was among Mangakahia Area School students who absolutely loved playing in the hail.
"It happened while the children were in their classes and it lasted no more than 15 minutes. The hail was hitting the roof so hard and so forcefully," he said.
Waipu resident Dulcie Leech said she had never seen so much hail in the 42 years she has lived in Northland.
"We've had hail before but not at this time of the year. It probably filtered through from the snow down in the South Island," she said.
She was standing outside her house on Durham Rd in Waipu as her husband was about to leave for work just before 8am when hail started thundering down and blanketed their deck and front lawn.
"These huge rain drops came down at first followed by hail. It lasted 10 to 15 minutes only but it took a while for the hail to melt."
MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said there were an estimated 100 to 200 lightning strikes in Northland in the 24 hours to 10am yesterday.Nationwide there were about 24,000 lightning strikes during the same time.
Ms Murray said there was a risk of thunderstorms in Northland today, especially in the evening and mainly in the western areas such as Dargaville.
Up to 15mm of rain and wind gusts of 110km/h were possible in parts of Northland heading into the weekend as a front moved away, she said.
Southwesterlies with intermittent showers will continue today, tomorrow and Saturday before wind changes to northwest on Sunday.
Hail forms when thunderstorm updrafts are strong enough to carry water droplets well above the freezing level.
This freezing process forms a hailstone, which can grow as additional water freezes on to it. Eventually, the hailstone becomes too heavy for the updrafts to support it and it falls to the ground.
