Heavy rains brought localised flooding to parts of Auckland, including a fast flowing Wairau Creek on the north shore
Homes in several Auckland suburbs have been hit by flooding this morning as foul weather lashes the upper North Island.
A spokesman for the Fire Service said Murrays Bay, Waiake, Takapuna, Forrest Hill and Onetangi were all experiencing flooding, with East Coast Bays the worst hit area.
Fifteen homes in East Coast Bays were affected by flooding.
Thunderstorms bringing torrential rain are dousing the upper North Island as the tail-end of a storm which battered South Australia this week makes its presence felt on this side of the Tasman.
The MetService yesterday issued severe weather warnings for the Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty regions, warning of heavy rain, strong winds and thundery conditions into this afternoon.
WeatherWatch has also issued an alert for Northland and Auckland, with flooding expected between 9am and midday.
Bay of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula, East Cape and the Central Plateau will also be exposed to wild weather, and isolated thunderstorms are expected.
Power has now been restored to residents in Torbay, according to Vector.
The storm, which this week knocked out power and caused wide-spread flooding in much of South Australia, will have lost most of its punch by the time it reaches New Zealand, but WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan last night warned it could still cause localised flooding and heavy downpours.
MetService rain radar at 10.21am.
"It's no longer a storm but it can produce stormy weather," he said.
"There will be little pockets of severe weather that we will be monitoring in two areas: one is heavy downpours that will be moving into mainly the North Island during Sunday.
"The other will be isolated thunderstorms that will also be focused around the North Island."
The bulk of the wet weather would be concentrated in the top quarter of the country, where there was a risk of some localised flooding.
The stormy weather will herald a major shift in the easterly weather patterns the country has been experiencing for the start of spring.
"The air flow for the first half of October is turning westerly and it's all because of this change coming in. So it's not so much severe weather that it's bringing in it's more that it's bringing in a big change to the pattern that we've been seeing."
Farmers and growers would certainly notice the change with the majority of the rain fall moving from the eastern side of the country to the western.
Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday would see similar unsettled weather and Wednesday would see the start of "traditional" spring weather.
"From Wednesday that's absolutely the green light for the usual roaring forties across the entire country - this is nearly half a month late. For the first half of October it's going to be traditional spring weather which is going to mean lots of westerlies, lots of windy days, lots of warmth - lots of Ws."
