{"id":165397,"date":"2025-12-03T03:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/165397\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T03:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:45:09","slug":"lightning-hits-sky-tower-as-thunderstorms-sweep-north-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/165397\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning hits Sky Tower as thunderstorms sweep North Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Severe thunderstorms are hammering the North Island today, bringing downpours, hail, strong winds and a tornado in Manawat\u016b.<\/p>\n

MetService said a severe thunderstorm watch was in place for Northland, Auckland, the Great Barrier Island until 5pm and the Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua and Taup\u014d until 6pm.<\/p>\n

Thunderstorms could become severe through of the afternoon, with localised downpours of 25 to 40mm\/h before activity was expected to ease in the evening.<\/p>\n

Video from MetService showed a lightning strike hitting Auckland’s 328m tall Sky Tower at around 1pm.<\/p>\n

A reported tornado caused damage<\/a> in the Manawat\u016b region this afternoon, ripping up trees, damaging small structures, and overturning a caravan at a motor park, injuring one person.<\/p>\n

\"Weather<\/p>\n

Weather warnings and watches as of 10am on December 3, 2025. (Source: MetService)<\/p>\n

Other watches and warnings were issued as the active low pressure system was expected to move onto central and northern parts of the country today, and move to the east of the country on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Up to 120mm of rain was expected for Bay of Plenty including Rotorua, Gisborne\/Tairawhiti north of Ruatoria and inland ranges, with highest accumulations expected east of \u014cp\u014dtiki. An orange heavy rain warning was in place for that area until midnight. <\/p>\n

<\/a>“Peak intensities 15 to 25 mm\/h, but possibly 25 to 40 mm\/h in localised areas.” <\/p>\n

The top of the South Island was also set to catch some of the weather, with watches in place for Marlborough, Nelson\u2019s inland ranges, and the Kaik\u014dura coast.<\/a><\/p>\n

Full watches and warnings list <\/p>\n

Severe Thunderstorm Watch<\/p>\n

Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island – 7hrs 30min from 9:30am – 5pm today.<\/p>\n

Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taup\u014d – 5hrs from 1pm – 6pm today.<\/p>\n

Heavy Rain Warning – Orange<\/p>\n

Bay of Plenty including Rotorua, also Gisborne\/Tair\u0101whiti north of Ruatoria \u2013 12hrs from 11am \u2013 11pm Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Heavy Rain Watch<\/p>\n

Northland \u2013 8hrs from 9am \u2013 5pm Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Auckland, Great Barrier Island and Coromandel Peninsula \u2013 11hrs from 10am \u2013 9pm Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Central North Island areas of Waikato, Waitomo, Taumarunui, Taup\u014d, Taihape and inland Whanganui \u2013 9hrs from noon \u2013 9pm Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Taranaki \u2013 16hrs from 11am Wednesday \u2013 3am Thursday.<\/p>\n

Wairarapa \u2013 20hrs from 9am Wednesday \u2013 5am Thursday.<\/p>\n

Eastern hills and ranges of Wellington \u2013 18hrs from 9am Wednesday \u2013 3am Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Kaik\u014dura coast \u2013 15hrs from 9am \u2013 midnight Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Chatham Islands \u2013 20hrs from 2pm Wednesday \u2013 10am Thursday.<\/p>\n

Strong Wind Watch<\/p>\n

Northland and Auckland, including Great Barrier Island \u2013 10hrs from 9pm Wednesday \u2013 7am Thursday.<\/p>\n

Taranaki \u2013 9hrs from 8pm Wednesday \u2013 5am Thursday.<\/p>\n

Eastern Tararua District and Hawke\u2019s Bay south of Cape Kidnappers and also M\u0101hia Peninsula \u2013 13hrs from midnight Wednesday \u2013 1pm Thursday.<\/p>\n

Horowhenua to Wellington \u2013 13hrs from 4pm Wednesday \u2013 5am Thursday.<\/p>\n

Wairarapa \u2013 15hrs from 7pm Wednesday \u2013 10am Thursday.<\/p>\n

The ranges of Marlborough and Nelson east of Wakefield, also in the east of the Nelson Lakes \u2013 10hrs from 5pm Wednesday \u2013 3am Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Chatham Islands \u2013 12hrs from 6pm Thursday \u2013 6am Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Severe thunderstorms are hammering the North Island today, bringing downpours, hail, strong winds and a tornado in Manawat\u016b.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69,3393],"class_list":["post-165397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-weather-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}