A lightning strike has “blown up” a large tree on a Rotorua golf course, scattering wood 50 metres in all directions.
The spectacular electrical storm overnight cut power to thousands and MetService issued further weather warnings today.
Almost 400 lightning strikes were recorded across Rotorua and Bay of Plenty overnight.
Springfield Golf Club head greenkeeper Dan Towgood said 50-100 kilograms of wood was blown from a large tree on the course when it was struck by lightning around 5.15am.
He discovered the tree had “disintegrated” when he was doing his checks this morning.
Towgood believed the tree was a conifer and was around 40m tall.
He said it appeared to have “blown up” about 2m from the base with wood spread 50m in every direction.
“It’s crazy.”
There was debris on the 8th, 9th and 10th holes and the greens were damaged.
Towgood said some of the wood was too large for him to remove alone and would need to be chopped up.
“The craziest thing is you can see the lightning bolt in the ground ... one of my greens has got bolt marks, like veins through it.
He said the bolt also travelled through the irrigation line, blew up valve boxes and destroyed the wiring. The controller box in his shed was “absolutely destroyed and blown to bits”.
He said it was lucky there were no fires.
He said his manager had heard “a big bang, like an explosion” this morning, and realised it was probably the “obliterated” tree when he got to the course.
He said an arborist would likely remove the tree, which would now be a hazard.
“We’re lucky it happened at 5.15am and not midday when there are people around.”
The course would remain closed tomorrow, with Towgood’s main concern being the amount of water on the course. He said the tree and debris would be blocked off until it was sorted.
MetService meteorologist John Law said 391 strikes were recorded across Rotorua and Bay of Plenty overnight. Of these, 200 were recorded on land.
A Unison spokeswoman said approximately 3500 properties lost power in Rotorua this morning.
“We were able to reconfigure our network to reconnect many of these customers to restore their power quickly. The most prominent outages were caused by failing equipment. We are investigating the cause of the equipment failures, however it is likely the poor weather was a contributing factor,” the spokeswoman said.
“We expect to have the remaining outage in the Old Taupo Rd area restored by approximately 3pm today.”
Rain, lightning strikes and power cuts affected the region this morning with MetService issuing further weather warnings.
Rotorua had had 76mm of rain in the 24 hours to 2pm Thursday, with 51mm at Whakatāne, and 24mm at Tauranga through the same time period.
The eastern Bay of Plenty, Bay of Plenty west of Te Puke and Coromandel Peninsula have been placed under orange heavy rain warnings until 3pm Friday.
It was expected 120-160mm of rain would fall in that time, with peak rates of 15 to 25mm per hour and more thunderstorms possible.
Metservice meteorologist Andrew James said clouds will be hanging over the region for the next few days, with any blue breaks expected to be short-lived.
“With winds continuing to come from the northeast, the northeastern corner of the country is in for a prolonged spell of wet weather through the weekend. There’s a bit of an easing for a while on Sunday,” James said.
Thunderstorms were in the mix for eastern North Island areas, which would bring localised bursts of additional intense rainfall.
”This is not the news the people of the eastern North Island will want to hear, and our thoughts are with them as our teams are keeping a close eye on these areas.”
While there was no heavy rain warning for Rotorua, there was still a chance of more thunderstorms and intense rainfall today.
Due to surface flooding, caution was advised for travel on State Highway 30 between Cookson Rd and Rotokawa Rd near Rotorua, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said.
Thames-Coromandel District Council this morning warned motorists travelling on the region’s roads to watch for flooding and debris.
Cira Olivier is a social issues and breaking news reporter for NZME Bay of Plenty. She has been a journalist since 2019.
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