Blown and blasted, with more bad weather coming

Brace yourself for more freezing wind, thunder and rain today.

The wintry blast from a low parked south of New Zealand is unlikely to ease before Friday.

In Auckland yesterday, squalls and southwesterlies gusting up to 80km/h toppled 10 mostly empty shipping containers at the Fergusson terminal. No one was injured.

Lightning strikes and hailstorms lashed the upper North Island, and more snow was dumped on Otago and Southland.

Auckland emergency services were busy dealing with car crashes and wind-damaged buildings.

MetService forecaster Bob Lake said the cold air being blown north by the low-pressure system was picking up moisture as it crossed the sea, creating heavy clouds and thunderstorms.

The low covered from north of NZ to Antarctica yesterday.

Regan Kearns' home in Browns Bay on the North Shore was hit by lightning just after she left to pick up her 2-year-old daughter, Azaria, from preschool. "It blew walls out, it blew concrete paths to bits, it blew windows out," said Ms Kearns.

"It moved the house, lifted the floor - and the television has had it. It is unbelievable."

Ms Kearns came home to find firefighters crawling through her home. She was told the blast from the strike had been heard throughout Browns Bay.

The Fire Service received more than 100 calls to wind damage across Auckland in the morning, including the roof of the Methodist Church in Birkenhead.

Police attended about 70 car accidents throughout the day.

In the Waikato, lightning strikes - 3500 overnight on Monday - booming thunder and 100km/h gusts hammered the province.

The MetService has issued a heavy snow warning for Southland and Otago, and it forecasts falls down to 1000m for all North Island mountains.

nzherald.co.nz/weather

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