Hundreds of lightning flashes are being recorded this evening as an intense low pressure system in the southern Tasman Sea moves onshore.  A strong but short lived electrical storm ratteld Wanganui around 7pm and reports of lightning have also come in from Wellington. 

According to the Weather Watch Centre’s lightning radar lightning strikes have dramatically increased in the past three hours.  “We’ve gone from 40 flashes an hour to 330 an hour and that’s increasing by the minute” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.  In the 15 minutes it’s taken to update this story that number has risen to 401 strikes an hour”.

Western areas from Wellington right through to northern Taranaki are currently reporting thunderstorms with other western regions expected to follow suit overnight and during Wednesday.

“The outer bands of this storm are now moving into Auckland and in the past hour we’ve seen winds of 100km/h in exposed regions during squally showers”.

Mr Duncan says the eye of the storm will make landfall somewhere along the South Island’s West Coast tonight.

Last night the Weather Watch Centre predicted the risk of small tornadoes along the nation’s west coast and tonight One News confirmed a report of one in Taranaki.  Mr Duncan says strong winds and the risk of small tornadoes could cause damage but damage should be isolated.  “This system is very organised but only pockets of damage are expected.  Damage could include fallen trees, lifted roofs and fallen powerlines”.

Mr Duncan says small tornadoes damage properties along the nation’s west coast every year from systems like this and while people shouldn’t be too worried they should at least be prepared.

And while the attention is mostly focused on the North Island tonight eyes will be shifting to the South Island during Wednesday evening as a bitterly cold southerly moves in.  Snow is expected to relatively low levels and farmers should be aware that bitterly cold winds and snow could cause stress to new born animals.

Mr Duncan says a bitterly cold south easterly will stay with the South Island for a number of days with snow flurries and cold winds expected to last right through until Sunday.

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