Weather: Three thunderstorm warnings for Canterbury, South Island to shiver

Three severe thunderstorms are moving across Canterbury bringing chaotic conditions and the chance of flooding with them.

The majority of Canterbury is under a severe thunderstorm watch with three warnings issued for Timaru, Ashburton and Waimate, beginning at 3pm.

They are in place until 7pm, bringing high chances of torrential rain and large hail.

MetService warns the conditions could be dangerous with rain causing flash floods and hail damaging houses, vehicles and crops.

🌩🔺 Two Severe Thunderstorm Warnings have been issued for storms which have formed in Canterbury and have been detected on our radar network this afternoon.

Full details can be found here https://t.co/GeH6tLtNpH

These storms are causing torrential rain and large hail.… pic.twitter.com/wlUMlgD41U

— MetService (@MetService) November 4, 2023

As the storms move across the region, the National Emergency Management Agency advises that people move their cars under cover and away from trees, and shelter indoors away from windows.

Anyone who is out on the water should return to land immediately and people should avoid driving. If you have to drive, you should be cautious and ready to stop.

It’s also advised that people keep out of streams and gullies in case they are swept away by flash flooding.

As Canterbury prepares to be battered by heavy weather, the rest of the country is enjoying a calm Saturday. The North Island is enjoying mainly fine weather with a few isolated showers sprinkled across Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay as well as Wellington.

The highest temperature was in Napier, a whopping 25 C and the lowest was Gore, which just scraped in below double digits at 9.5 C.

Moving into Monday, the storms will start to drift north with a chance of storms near south Waikato and hail in Taihape. The South Island will have a reprieve from the weather with scattered showers but overall fine throughout the day.

As the year ticks by, El Niño will settle in bringing hot and dry weather with it.

Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said, a shift this month would pull our weather trends away from the often wet and chilly conditions we’ve seen during spring.

“We’ve had some ups and downs this spring, but once we hit the second half of November, we’re going to be on the upswing,” he said.

“It looks like we’re going to get some pretty hot and dry weather for a lot of regions, starting around the middle of the month, and that’s going to set the stage for what we’re predicting in our three-month outlook.”