Rain in the North Island, road snowfall warnings in the South Island

MetService have dropped any risk of a tornado and say the weather is expected to improve.

Duty forecaster Tui McInnes says westerly winds are bringing showers to most of the country.

"Showery conditions [are] going to be really consistent over the next couple of days," says McInnes. "Today isn't going to feel much different from yesterday.

"Down south, places in the east like Christchurch and Dunedin [will be] better off."
However, they can still expect the odd shower and a lot of high cloud.

"Auckland especially is quite showery today, the same with Hamilton, Wellington might be spared come the afternoon. Things might start to clear up, it's just kind of a yucky day for most of the country unfortunately," McInnes says.

Road snowfall warnings are in place for parts of the country including the Lewis Pass, Arthurs Pass, Lindis Pass, Milford Rd, the Crown Range near Wanaka, and Springs Junction between Blenheim and Kaikoura.

New Plymouth was probably likely to bear the brunt of most of the wet weather, as up to 40mm of rain is forecast to fall until midnight tonight. Other western areas including Raglan and Hokitika, Westport would also be wet today.

Auckland can expect showery conditions most of the day with a few breaks in between.

The improving weather follows days of thunderstorms and tornadoes across the country.

An electrical storm lit up the sky across parts of Waikato, Taranaki and down to Wellington this morning, but a severe thunderstorm watch for the whole west coast of the North Island has now been lifted.

Power has also been restored to more than 4000 people after the storm caused an outage in Wellington's Newlands, Johnsonville and Paparangi suburbs, also affecting traffic lights.

Noisy night? In the last 12 hours 2910 lightning strikes were recorded in the New Zealand region. Although many were...

Posted by MetService New Zealand on Wednesday, 6 September 2017

TRAFFIC SIGNAL OUTAGE: #SH1 Ngauranga, at the intersection of Jarden Mile, due to lightning. Please #TakeExtraCare #GiveWayRulesApply ^EL pic.twitter.com/6DyI7cx1IA

— Waka Kotahi Wellington (@WakaKotahiWgtn) September 6, 2017

Police said traffic lights aren't working between Ngauranga Gorge and Petone, including at the Ngauranga Interchange.The New Zealand Transport Agency said traffic lights are also out at the Johnsonville off-ramp in the gorge.

NZTA has warned motorcycles and high-sided vehicles to take extra care because of strong winds on the Rimutaka Hill.

Wellington Transport Operations Centre reported heavy traffic on the SH1 Tawa to Johnsonville route and SH1 Johnsonville to Ngauranga Interchange.