Lightning and rain galore across the Bay and it is not easing up

About 2000 lightning strikes were recorded across the North Island with most of them being in the Bay of Plenty. Photo / File

It's been wet and wild around the Bay and it won't ease up for another day.

According to MetService meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree about 2000 lightning strikes were recorded across the North Island yesterday and a lot of those were associated with the weather event that moved across the Bay of Plenty last night.

She said 108 lightning strikes were recorded in the Bay of Plenty between 7pm and 7am this morning, 49 of those were recorded in the past six hours.

"As a result, there was quite large hourly rainfall rates. Places were seeing around 5mm an hour accumulating to 10 - 15mm later in the evening," she said.

All of the rain has since cleared but residents should expect a few showers this morning and more heavy rain this evening as another front moves toward the Bay."

Over 3300 lightning strikes have been detected in the NZ region in the past two hours, with the bulk of them triggering on a front to the west of northern and central NZ https://t.co/prKU7O2R01 ^PL pic.twitter.com/mYl5EykZUT

— MetService (@MetService) November 10, 2019

There is a low risk of thunderstorms but the rainfall should be lighter she said.

"But it should be clearing for the rest of the week."

There were five weather-related callouts overnight across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato area, most of them fallen trees, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said.