Cyclone Hola: Heavy rains batter North Island, but worst weather at sea

Heavy rain has hit the northern North Island as Cyclone Hola sweeps across the country.

Kerikeri has received 26.2mm of rain during the cyclone and Auckland has received 10.4mm, according to the Met Office, but the Bay of Plenty appears to have borne the brunt of the storm.

Metservice reported 29.8mm of rain had fallen in Tauranga since 4pm, with nearly 10mm more expected before midnight.

But the rain didn’t stop surfers from making the most of the waves Hola has to offer.

About 80 surfers braved wind and rain to come to Mount Maunganui to tackle waves expected to be about 2 meters high.

This afternoon, forecaster Philip Duncan said the worst of the weather would stay offshore, away from most people and property, as Hola develops into a super tropical storm.

“There will still be strong winds east of Auckland and Northland, but they will be fairly light over land.

“More than half of the Hora winds will be offshore today, tonight and into the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, with about 40 per cent of them passing over New Zealand,” WeatherWatch chief forecaster Phil Duncan said.

As the centre of Hora moves towards the Eastern Cape, winds will strengthen in the south and southwest over the upper North Island.

“Winds may be strong and even reach gale force in some exposed areas, but we do not forecast significant damaging winds in these areas again.”

Currently, a rain band with moderate to light rain is covering much of Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, and parts of the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

“The main period of rainfall in the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay will be from late this afternoon until late tonight/early Tuesday morning.

“Maximum rainfall rates are likely to exceed 30mm/hour, but otherwise there will be light to moderate rainfall,” Duncan said.

Hola could weaken further due to interaction with the mountains of the upper North Island, as those mountains are breaking up the flow of air and moisture back toward the center of the storm.

MetService currently has heavy rain warnings in place for Northland, Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel Peninsula and Gisborne.

The warning for Gisborne lasts the longest, from 3pm today until 6am Tuesday morning.

Strong wind warnings have been issued for the aforementioned areas, as well as the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua, with gusts of up to 120km/h.

Air New Zealand cancelled flights to Whangarei and Kerikeri this morning.

“Due to weather conditions this morning, three one-way flights between Kerikeri and Auckland and three one-way flights between Whangarei and Auckland have been cancelled,” a spokesman said.

“Customers booked to travel today are advised to monitor the arrivals and departures page of the Air New Zealand website for the latest flight information.”

This has been a particularly active cyclone season and New Zealanders may get one or two more cyclones before the season ends in April.

Another system is forming in the Coral Sea south of the Solomon Islands.

MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said the cyclone was likely to be named Tropical Cyclone Linda in the coming days.

“There’s a lot of variation at the moment. There’s a chance New Zealand could be affected, but there’s a good chance Australia could be affected as well.”

“But at this point it could go anywhere. We need to deal with (Hola) first.”

He said if it did start tracking New Zealand, it would not arrive until the end of next week at the earliest.