Torrential downpours are continuing into the evening around the Bombay Hills, northern Waikato and now the very west coast of Northland

As of 4:55pm heavy showers had started to pop up hard along the west coast north of about Helensville. 

Meanwhile a torrential downpour that has lasted much of the afternoon continue to affect the south eastern side of the Bombay Hills, Hunua Ranges and northern parts of Waikato. 

WeatherWatch.co.nz expects some small swollen streams could burst their banks.

Afternoon heating combined with high humidity has created large cloud build ups around Auckland city, southern parts of Northland, Waikato and the the west coast to Taranaki. 

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the heavy downpours will be very slow moving and bring with them a “high chance” of localised surface or even flash flooding. 

“Systems like this making driving extremely hazardous by causing large pooling on roads and often overwhelming drainage systems”.

Mr Duncan says the isolated afternoon deluges may cause small streams to flood and may also pose problems to buildings that leak or flood relatively quickly.

The heavy downpours are related to the same Tasman Sea depression that has caused numerous rain warnings for the North Island this week and brought sticky overnight lows and 100% humidity to Auckland last night.

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