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Severe thunderstorms lashed the South Island last night bringing lightening, hail and heavy rain to the West Coast and parts of Canterbury.
Metservice forecaster Bob Lake said there have been media reports of a tornado in Westport and although he could not verify the reports, Mr Lake said the conditions would have been conducive to tornadoes.
He said by the time the bad weather got to the North Island it had died down and it is now sitting just north of Auckland.
"Today it is much quieter and all the activity has died down," Mr Lake said.
Metservice is forecasting sun for the majority of the South Island today.
A tornado caused severe damage to the roof of a large workshop attached to Solid Energy's Stockton Mine yesterday afternoon.
Mine manager Ian Harvey said the tornado touched down just after 5pm, near Westport, and ripped about a third of the roof off a historic workshop that was built in 1905.
Mr Harvey said two men were in the building at the time and took cover in a stairwell.
"It seemed to just touch down, there was no obvious path," Mr Harvey said.
He said a house in front of the workshop also had its roof ripped off and thrown about 100 metres away.
Mr Harvey said about $200,000 of damage was done to the building but luckily there were no injuries.
"They dodged a bullet," Mr Harvey said.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
