Metservice says the next line of Thunderstorms are now moving over Auckland. Photo / Twitter
Thunderstorms in Auckland have come to a halt but Niwa Weather is warning waves of up to 10 metres are forecast for Wednesday.
The big swell is due to hit areas east of New Zealand, with a particular warning for Chatham Islands.
Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Taranaki have been getting hammered by severe thunderstorms that will continue on and off until midnight.
But don't be fooled by a break in the bad weather as MetService meteorologist Melissa Oosterwijk said it was a very active front and more cells would be heading over.
"Not all of them will be as heavy, but each of them do have the potential to be associated with heavy rain and thunder. Sometimes it will be rain and sometimes it will be thunder and lightning as well."
Some hail and strong gusts of wind are also expected.
Auckland and Taranaki were currently reaching gusts of wind up to 60km/h, but the gusts could reach up to 110km/h, forming small tornadoes.
A resident in Dargaville said the thunder was really loud and she could still hear it in the distance.
Eastern parts of the North Island such as the Bay of Plenty, Taupō, Manawatu could also expect some lighter thunderstorms.
The thunderstorms are expected to ease off overnight.
Almost 28,000 lightning strikes zapped the country's sky in the past three days bringing with it damaging storm conditions - and it's not over yet.
Niwa earlier warned north Waikato, Auckland and the southern part of Northland were in line for another hammering.
An impressive 27,360 lightning strikes were recorded from Saturday morning through until 4pm Monday.
The strikes occurred in the Tasman Sea and New Zealand, according to Niwa.
Taranaki and Waikato had the largest number of strikes on land on Monday, recording more than 400 strikes during a one hour period mid-morning.
While on Sunday Gisborne, Bay of Plenty, Waikato followed by Northland all recorded a large number of lightning strikes.
"Auckland did get some lightning strikes on Sunday, but they were kind of sandwiched between the most active areas," said Niwa meteorologist Seth Carrier.
MetService has put a weather watch in place from Taranaki to Northland from midday today until midnight.
Carrier said it looked like more lightning, thunder, some heavy rain including the possibility of pea-sized hail and strong winds would hit Northern Waikato, Auckland and Northland.
There could also be strong gusts, but they did not appear to be as powerful as the ones that rampaged Auckland last night, he said.
"There is another line of storms coming onshore. We are going to see at least a few more lightning strikes."
Lightning is driven from thunderstorms created by instability in the atmosphere.
If warmer air near the surface of the ground or ocean was warmer than its surrounding air
and rose fast enough it could blossom into a thunderstorm.
"In a very general sense that's kind of what we've had in the Tasman and New Zealand in the last few days."
The strikes were part of stormy conditions which caused chaos in parts of New Zealand last night and today.
MetService meteorologist Peter Little said the warmer than normal weather and the high winds of up to 380km/h were what led to the crazy storms that saw 16,000 lightning strikes across New Zealand over the weekend. Of those 5500 hit over the 24 hours from 8am on Sunday morning.
The stormy weather has caused havoc in parts of the country.
Strong winds rolled a caravan in Taranaki and injured another person today. While in Auckland roofs were ripped off houses in last night's storm, shipping containers were bowled over and part of Auckland's The Cloud event venue was peeled back in the sweeping gusts.
A preschool on Bermuda Rd in St Heliers was badly damaged and a house in Riverhead was also struck by lightning.
The 19-year-old was found in a remote area in the hills of Upper Hutt.