Several bands of thunderstorms are tonight moving back in to northern and western parts of the country.  Taranaki, Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty Auckland and Northland have the highest risk for thunderstorms overnight tonight.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says around 19,850 stirikes have been recorded today by the Weather Watch Centre’s Lightning Radar, mostly off shore of Taranaki and Bay of Plenty but a large number were also recorded onland including some loud thunder booms which woke a number of Aucklanders early this morning. 

At 9pm Northland and Waitomo were bearing the brunt of the storms.

In the past few hours the storms have gathered strength in the Tasman Sea and are already starting to move onshore in places like Waitomo, Waikato and Northland, with Auckland following suit before midnight. 

Mr Duncan says several thousand more strikes are probably still to come over the next 24 hours.

“Localised heavy downpours may cause flash or surface flooding so motorists should take extreme care tonight”.