Overnight lightning strikes light up North Island

Lighting seen from Welcome Bay. Photo and video by Cameron Avery.

The North Island was lit up by more than 33,000 lightning strikes overnight.

MetService says 80 per cent of the strikes were over land, which gave people a good view of electric storms.

Meteorologist Tui McInnes says a combination of humid air, a cool upper atmosphere, weak wind and warm earth created the perfect conditions for the storms.

He says there were a number of very heavy localised downpours, including about 50 millimetres of rain in one hour in Taranaki.

Photo: Cameron Avery.

The electrical storm captured over the hills near Walford Road, Aongatete. Photo: Josh Casey.

Similar storms were also expected across the North Island today.

Fire and Emergency attended 22 weather related call outs in the Auckland region, including surface flooding and two downed trees.

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