Lightning and high winds have struck Taupo with reports of a 60m tornado and the roofs of buildings being lifted off in the town. The Daily Post has received reports of wild weather plagued with thunder and lightning overnight. Reports of a 60m tornado in the Taupo suburb of Paetiki have come in along with buildings having their roofs blown off. ...
Rotorua was subject to a heavy downpour between 4.30am and 5am today, but there have been no reports of damage. ..
Thought I'd move this to a separate thread. Posted the above in the 'Thunder possible this week...' thread this morn, but the link has since been changed. The updated story includes these comments...
Sheep taking shelter under a tree during a thunderstorm at Taupo were killed when lightning struck the tree.
A thunderstorm and high winds hit the tourist town overnight on Thursday with reports of flash flooding and a tree being hit by lightning on a rural property.
There have been unconfirmed reports of buildings having roofs blown off and a 60m tornado striking the suburb of Paetiki. The MetService couldn't confirm the tornado reports but forecaster Geoff Sanders said "it could possibly happen." ...
...A massive waterspout made a spectacular sight as it bore down on the coast at Ocean Beach, two days after another large waterspout was seen over Auckland skies.
Hail was reported in Kaitaia and Wellsford, where it was so heavy vehicles had to pull over until the cloud passed a few minutes later. Thunder was heard throughout the region, accompanied by periods of heavy rain.
She reckons it was about 5-10km out to sea but knew, after reading about a waterspout in Auckland earlier this week, that it would dissipate before it hit land so they were not too worried about it.
