Weather a rare experience for many

A freak of nature – yesterday's amazing hail storm was certainly something I've never seen before in New Zealand, with hail as thick as a heavy snow fall in the South Island mountains.  The waterspout, which to me looked more like a large tornado crossing the mid-west of America, must've been fairly frightening for those living along the waterfront watching it. (See other waterspout images from NZ here).
 
I was born in nearby Te Puke and every year we had a school trip to Papamoa – a sports day with other small primary schools from around the area.  Of course back then Papamoa was a tiny village in the middle of no where, today it's a suburb – an extension of Mt Maunganui. My memories of Papamoa are firmly etched into my mind – hot, dry, and summer-like. Even in Winter, the area looked like summer.
 
But yesterday that all changed as a deep low 150kms south west of Auckland and 150kms north of New Plymouth churned away spawning heavy showers, tornadoes, waterspouts and hail.   Around 15,000 lightning strikes were recorded around the North Island, most of them over the Bay of Plenty.  Something I also remember about living in the Bay were the big thunderstorms.  I think the Bay of Plenty produces some of the best weather in New Zealand – sunny days like you wouldn't believe but with a healthy mixture of heavy rain.  Big frosts in winter followed by almost hot, cloudless days.  But when a storm kicks in, it really kicks in.  I can remember one Easter weekend many years ago, in the month of April, and my brother and I went and stayed at a friends house at the Mount.  The house was full so we had to pitch a tent in an empty section next door.  That night the most amazing thunderstorm occurred and produced rain so heavy that while we were in the house a river had flowed through our tent – keep in mind the Mount is one long sandspit.  When we got back in to our tent later that night we found our sleeping bags and pillows were pushed up along one side of the tent with a ring of sand and grass about 10cms high around the inside where the water had peaked.
 
Yesterday's storm was rare – and an amazing sight for many.  The lightning detector is still clocking up hits this morning – at the time I wrote this (8am) it was registering 160 an hour, mostly north east of Northland.  At the peak of yesterday's thunderstorm it was clocking up lightning strikes at 1600 an hour.
 
I watched the rain radar all yesterday afternoon…this very small but incredibly active cell moved right along the Bay of Plenty coastline all the way to Whakatane.  A lot of the activity was just a kilometre or so off shore.  It's unbelievable to say this considering the hail and waterspout photos but I really believe if it had been a few kilometres closer to land the outcome could've been a lot different.  We wouldn't have had a majestic waterspout – instead we might have seen an F2 or F3 tornado (F5 is the worst) badly damaging homes within a 50 to 100 metre radius for a number of kilometres.   We may have seen Tauranga badly hit, bringing one of the country's biggest cities to a standstill.   The amazing thing about this storm is that it appears to have only brushed the coastline and damage still appears mainly light.
 
Today looks much quieter – the low is actually still in a very similar place to 5pm last night when it made 'landfall' west of Hamilton.  This morning it's still churning away west of Hamilton but it is much weaker.  There's still some heavy showers, possibly some with hail and thunder, but I doubt we're in for a repeat of yesterday's rare storm.  Tomorrow conditions should ease significantly in the North Island and all eyes shift to the South Island for the next low moving in this Friday – which at this stage appears to be more of a South Island/Lower North Island event.  All the details on this system in my next update here.
 
We have extensive photos of yesterday's hail storm which you'll find here.

Philip Duncan

Pictured above: After the hailstorm in Papamoa. Photo / Sonia Thain