Hiya James. Im not sure about the harbour bridge scenario, perhaps Nev from Waiheke would be more qualified to comment on that one. I do think a couple of storms ago they had a reduced traffic flow at one point?

Slowly starting to wind up though.. we are ready here

Wow that is an intense low! Be sure to keep us posted, I look forward to your stories.

Its fair blowing its nuts off here atm.. very elevated position at my place with uninhibited views in all directions & the hills surrounding give a huge push to any winds that come through.. reports of gusts to 130km/h out in the Hauraki Gulf.. has been constant steady rain for most of the day but the worst is yet to hit. I am having gusts in the range of 70km/h at time of typing, it will get worse before it gets better.

According to WeatherWatch gusts are in the range of 145km/h out in the gulf with sustained speeds of about 120. Can vouch for that, its real nasty out right now and the squash zone hasnt really come upon us yet.

keep us posted dale looks like i left NZ just in time

That low by the looks of GFS will be an absolute MONSTOR, looks like a north Atlantic low, that western Europe can get sometimes, hope everyone battens down the hatches and stay safe

Survived the night all.. just.
House is up on 2m piles and boy was she shake rattling and rolling.. Not a great lot of damage to report locally, gusts were pushing around the 80-90km/h mark but sustained no less than 60-70.. neighbours trampoline got tossed through their fence, small tree down a few mins down the road, couple of buckled and twisted sign in Pukekohe itself. Still blowing really hard here now but the only thing that really spared us was the fact the storm stopped and then strted tracking East.. not South as many of us had modelled it. Had it done so.. oh boy!

1 confirmed fatality so far and many thousands without power on the Coromandel as a main feeder line through there came down last night.

Pretty damn concise explanation by Philip from Weatherwatch regarding the storm last night and why Auckland was spared

I've seen reports of 24-hour rainfalls of 594mm at Hicks Bay on East Cape, and 584 at Paeroa in the Coromandel. I'm not sure what the North Island record is but those must be reasonably close to it (the NZ record is, if I recall correctly, 647 from a station in Westland in January 1994; in a somewhat unfortunate piece of timing, I picked this day to attempt to visit the west coast glaciers).

Oops - just heard from the person who sent these figures that they are out by a factor of 10.

Hiya Blair.

Paeroa isnt too far away, about an hour and a bit drive, those factors are way out indeed.. for that whole blast on the weekend we barely broke about 30mm here but im wondering how much didnt get into the gagues as the winds were pushing it near horizontal. Most of the coromandel had been without power since the storm started on Saturday night with a 66kV line snapping & cutting power to most of the penninsula.

I think it was up in northland with Kaeo that recorded the big rains.. practically the whole July annual in a space of 36 hours?

Correct me if im wrong anybody.

Hi Blair, yes Colliers Creek in Westland's Hokitika Catchment holds the national 24 hour rainfall record with 682mm falling on Jan 21–22 in 1994 (also holds the 12 hour record with 473mm on the 22nd). Not sure what the North Island rainfall-record is, but the Gisborne / East Cape region would probably come close, when in early March, 1988, 514mm was recorded inland from Tolaga Bay in a single day, c/o (ex) Cyclone Bola (916mm fell over the 3 days).

Re this weekend's storm, as Dale mentioned, it was more of a Northland event. In the 36 hours from midnight Friday until noon Sunday, about 170mm of rain fell on the eastern hills above the small far north town of Kaeo and also in Puhipuhi on the eastern hills north of Whangarei. Higher areas along Northland’s east coast typically receive about 250mm for the entire month of July. Gusts to 144.5 km/h were recorded at Cape Reinga. Kaeo is no stranger to floods though. Two years ago to the day, 254mm fell in 12 hours, which almost permanently wiped the town off the map.

Btw, according to MetService's Bob McDavitt, Auckland City was protected from the gale-force winds that battered Northland over the weekend by a dense layer of protective air downwind of the Coromandel. The air barrier pushed the E to SE gales over the top of the city, grazing the tip of the Sky Tower but leaving city-dwellers unruffled.

Some nice cold (but not record breaking) temps in the South Island on Tuesday. Christchurch had -4.5C I believe while Lake Tekapo had -10.4C.

It's not surprising with the mostly clear skies there and snow covered hills and mountains... I never get sick of this cam:

http://www.tekapotourism.co.nz/webcam.htm

(Cam won't update until daylight tomorrow)

Surprisingly Brizwx that is actually not too far off July record minimum temp for Christchurch! Their July minimum record is -6.8C back on 18th July 1980 so only around 2C off that!

Had another tornado in Taranaki last night, caused a little bit of damage about.
The same line of storms moved up into the greater Auckland area this morning about 2am our time with a fair bit of thunder ive heard from people, the near gale force winds and super heavy rain mixed in with hail drowned out the sound of it from here anyway, although i vaguely remember hearing 1 clap. Poor Rach was cowering under the duvet & none of the boys flinched in their sleep lol.

Love this rogue winter weather over here

Snow being reported just outside of Christchurch (250m asl) a few minutes ago with Arthurs Pass closed to those without chains! Also reports of snow in the North Island around Dannevirke and areas of Manawatu Gorge/Woodville...

Yep, I look like the prverbial drowned rat atm.. 2 vehicles in for the warrant of fitness today (roadworthy for you guys) and the skies opened above me in Pukekohe around 3pm.. thunder, lightning and torrential rain resulting in flash flooding and the partial closure of SH22 (2nd main south arterial out of Auckland)

No dust tho.. yet.

i doubt that you will see much dust prolly just enough to make your sunsets look pretty

It has arrived this morning.. although its raining on and off the sky has a very dirty look to it.

Metar shows it up well..
METAR NZAA 242000Z 02007KT 350V060 7000 SHRA FEW015 BKN020 15/14 Q1000 TEMPO 4000 SHRA FEW030CB RMK DUST

Hey Dale I've herd from friends on the North Shore there is a Tsunami warning for you guys, can you give us any more info on it?
Cant see anything on metservice.