Thunderstorm watch for the Bay of Plenty as rain sets in

Metservice has issued a sever thunderstorm watch for the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua. Photo / File

Pack away the sunscreen and pop on your gumboots - a period of heavy rain is hitting the Bay.

Metservice has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua this evening.

The statement said a period of heavy northerly rain is coming with thunderstorms possible.

"Amounts may approach warning criteria, especially about the ranges of eastern Bay of Plenty and the ranges of Gisborne.

"A front is moving eastwards across the central and upper North Island this afternoon and early evening, bringing periods of heavy rain and a few thunderstorms."

This watch is for localised downpours of 25 to 40mm per hour and possibly more according to the Metservice statement.

The warning is valid until 9pm tonight Metservice said.

Rain for 90 per cent of the country on Tuesday

Wind, rain, thunderstorms and even some snow is battering New Zealand owing to a massive Tasman low - though good weather is expected in time for Christmas Day.

The low-pressure system could even see small coastal tornadoes forming.

MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the weather system made landfall on Monday night and would bring rain to 90 per cent of the country as it moved southeast Tuesday.

The hardest-hit areas would be Bay of Plenty, the Central Plateau and Taranaki, which all had heavy rain watches in place.

Power outages

As a result of weather, Mount Maunganui was earlier affected by a power outage but it has since been restored.

A palm frond was the culprit after the outage struck 1589 properties.

Another power outage has affected Pukehina with 154 properties affected.

A Powerco spokesman said this would also be a result of weather but it was still undetermined at this stage.

The power outage hit at 5.03pm.