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Severe thunderstorms hit the Auckland, Waikato and Waitomo areas last night, leaving behind a carpet of hail.
The storms started on Auckland's North Shore at about 4pm and had eased by about 5.30pm before travelling northwest of Hamilton.
About 30mm of rain fell, along with hail 20mm in diameter, and wind reached gusts of 110km/h.
MetService spokesman Bob McDavitt said there might have been about 450 strikes of lightning but most were from cloud to cloud, with about 10 hitting the ground.
The temperature dropped in only a few minutes from 20C to under13C.
Northcote resident Suresh Patel was amazed when the thunderstorm hit outside his house on Compton St.
"There were waves of hail," he said.
"The first lot were quite small but some were as big as peas.
"Our whole street looked like it was covered in snow, it was quite amazing.
"We went out on our deck and it was really slippery, the kids were sliding around in it."
More thunderstorms are expected in the North Island early this morning.
Mr McDavitt said the variable weather was common duringspring.
Fire Northern Communications Centre shift manager Jaron Phillips said the centre had 40 callouts in the Auckland region between 4pm and 5.30pm yesterday, compared with only three the day before.
"That's like a callout every two minutes - and that's just the Auckland region," he said.
Most of the calls came from the central city and Ponsonby areas. They were mostly false alarms activated by lightning strikes but crews had to investigate to ensure there was no fire, he said.
Fire services were called to Ramarama, where power lines had been struck by lightning, Morningside Drive in Mt Albert, where the roof of a house was struck, Orewa, where a roof was leaking, and to a house in Hillcrest on the North Shore which was flooded.
There were no injuries from the incidents, Mr Phillips said.
