{"id":220475,"date":"2026-01-07T00:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220475\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T00:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:06:10","slug":"thunderstorm-watch-issued-with-flash-flooding-risk-in-north-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220475\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderstorm watch issued with flash flooding risk in North Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rotorua Daily Post<\/p>\n

6 Jan, 2026 08:16 PMQuick Read<\/p>\n

Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.Subscribe now<\/p>\n

\u200c<\/p>\n

Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n

Thunderstorms are expected to gather across the region this afternoon. Photo \/ Glenn Taylor\n<\/p>\n

A severe thunderstorm watch is in place for parts of the North Island, including Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taup\u014d, Gisborne, and Hawke\u2019s Bay. <\/p>\n

\n Afternoon and evening thunderstorms were expected in inland areas of Bay of Plenty (from Rotorua eastwards), eastern Taup\u014d, inland Gisborne\/Tair\u0101whiti, and the Wairoa District from 1pm
\n to 9pm today, the MetService said in its latest update.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThese storms have the potential to become severe, bringing localised downpours with rainfall rates of 25 to 40mm per hour,\u201d the MetService said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRainfall of this intensity can cause surface and flash flooding, particularly in low-lying areas such as streams, rivers, and narrow valleys, and may also lead to slips.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motorists are advised to take extra care, as driving conditions could become hazardous due to surface flooding and poor visibility in heavy rain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rotorua Daily Post 6 Jan, 2026 08:16 PMQuick Read Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,16776,19876,12506,1976,78,8454,2514,18087,111,43,139,529,69,17711,6744,1562,7192,1327,2848,1852,69695,16670,102],"class_list":["post-220475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-flash","tag-flooding","tag-gisborne","tag-hawkes","tag-in","tag-including","tag-island","tag-issued","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-parts","tag-place","tag-plenty","tag-risk","tag-rotorua","tag-severe","tag-taup","tag-thunderstorm","tag-watch","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220475","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=220475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}