Serious storm rattles North

This image shows Northland under the weather at 4am yesterday, but does not show lightning strikes.

House-rattling thunder and thousands of lightning strikes played out over Northland in the early hours of yesterday with several buildings thought to be hit by lightning.

WeatherWatch recorded 1165 strikes in one hour alone in the Whangarei area during a storm that had all the hallmarks of a summer storm.

WeatherWatch senior analyst Philip Duncan said the temperature was 16C at midnight, and saturated with 97 per cent humidity. The temperature dropped rapidly after the storm moved off.

The Fire Service was called to three suspected lightning strikes on houses between 1am and 2am - two at Tikipunga and one at Onerahi. There were no fires or injuries.

Onerahi resident Angie Calver is counting her blessings after a strike either hit or came close to her house. At around midnight Ms Calver saw a big flash and heard a crack come from the power sockets her kitchen phone and toaster were plugged into. She checked fuses and other equipment but everything was still working.

While the spectacular electricity-charged storm shook much of eastern Northland, the Whangarei district was hardest hit.

As forecast, the power-packed cells built up rapidly but lingered over the district between midnight and 4am.

"Whangarei got walloped twice. You had one [storm] up there around 1am and then another one gathered again off to the west of Whangarei and came in even bigger a couple of hours later," Mr Duncan said.

"This weather is dangerous stuff. If you hear thunder stay indoors," Mr Duncan said.

"Globally lightning kills more people than any other severe weather, and while the numbers of lightning strikes on humans in New Zealand is very low, this could be partially attributed to messages making it to the public beforehand."

As the torrential rain, lightning and thunder extravaganza dragged itself away - and lost some oomph south of Auckland - it left behind minor flash flooding, short-lived power outages and a few tripped power transformers.

Northpower crews were busy with lightning related "small stuff" until early yesterday afternoon, public affairs adviser Steve MacMillan said. In Ruawai 1500 customers and about 3000 at Mangawhai lost electricity for a few minutes in the middle of the night. "We were very, very lucky," Mr MacMillan said.