What was interesting about these 2 events was that there was no rain(in my vacinity anyway). We only experienced light annoying drizzle, with no wind. The only visible aspects of the storms were the vivid mile high bolts of multichanneled lightning, and the thunder. Were these El Nino events, and am I the only one who remembers them?
Squalls, thunderstorms and tornadoes in northern districts
31 October - 4 November 2001
An active squall line brought a brief but intense period of gale force winds to many northern regions overnight 31 October - 1 November causing much damage, particularly in Auckland. Here the Fire Service was called out to emergencies in North Shore, Grey Lynn, Mission Bay, Onehunga and Mangere. A number of houses lost roofs and had windows smashed by winds estimated at 150 km/hr. Large trees were also tore down.
Damage and power failures were reported in Rotorua and Tauranga as the storm headed south early on the 1st.
The squally winds, which were accompanied by intense lightning, followed an unusually warm day in Auckland on 31 October - the high of 26°C was a record for Auckland in October.
On 3 November more thunderstorms affected northern New Zealand. A tornado spawned from one of these thunderstorms did significant damage in the Awakeri to Thornton area, just west of Whakatane, Bay of Plenty.
The tornado struck just before noon and left a trail of damage from Awakeri towards the sea. Buildings in the path of the twister were either partly damaged (eg, roofs lifted, windows broken) or, in some cases, completely demolished. One man had a lucky escape after running from his 10m long shed just seconds before it was ripped away. He said the tornado sounded "like a hundred lions roaring".
A large number of trees were uprooted and had limbs torn from them. A showpiece rose garden was decimated.
Power was cut to thousands of homes in the Whakatane area after debris was blown across lines and power poles were downed.
Excellent video footage of the tornado was shown on TV1 evening news on 4 November.
Another tornado was reported at Ohaupo, just south of Hamilton, Waikato on 3 November.
The next day (4 November), at least 4 funnel-clouds were observed in the vicinity of the previous day's tornado, causing concern for those performing clean-up operations.
Also on 4 November, a severe hailstorm struck Hamilton in the afternoon, leaving pebble-sized hail piled-up several inches on the ground. Torrential rain also flooded properties.
Meanwhile, further south, southerly gales in Cook Strait and 8m waves led to the cancellation of Lynx fast-ferry sailings.
Further south cold southerlies brought snow on the South Island high country as low as 700m. Temperatures reached only 6°C at Twizel and 10°C at Ashburton.
2003 20-21 September. Heavy rain and thunderstorms on West Coast, also northern and western districts of North Island. Severe thunderstorms bring a spectacular lightning show in Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Coromandel Peninsula (overnight 20th-21st) resulting in power cuts, notably north of Whangarei after trees are blown onto lines. On 21st, more heavy thunder and hailstorms in northern districts with flash floods, notably in afternoon in South Auckland, and in Kihikihi (south of Te Awamutu) where a ?snow-like? blanketing of hail is reported. Fresh dusting of snow in Canterbury above about 700m.
My birthday even 
