© Aaron Campbell Photography Lightning display in Christchurch.
Emergency services in Christchurch were kept on their toes when lightning, thunder, rain and hail the size of golf balls hit the region shortly after 6pm. It finished just after 7pm.
MetService said that the weather watch covers the possibility of northwesterlies gusting to severe gale strength at times in inland parts of Canterbury, Otago and Southland from late Wednesday through Thursday.
The Fire Service received about 20 callouts during and after the storm last night, about damage to roofs and conservatories from the hail, but many were false alarms triggered by the weather.
"Two conservatories collapsed because of the hail, and we had to assist one family whose roof had begun to lift," a Fire Service spokesman told NZ Newswire.
The spectacular show could be seen and heard over most of the city, with MetService reporting more than 200 lightning flashes during the storm.
Joy Hartley-Anderson commented on the ONE News Facebook page that the storm "was awesome".
"Just something special for us from mother nature to mark the two year anniversary of shaking the crap out of us.. :-)," she posted.
On September 4, 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook the ground beneath Christchurch more strongly than it had for thousands of years.
Flo Brown posted that the weather display was "amazing" and a "very special light display".
However, Tania Ake said it was "pretty bad at Redwood" and freaked her out.
The storm caused a power outage in the Southbridge, but electricity company Orion managed to restore power to all but four customers.
The last time Canterbury had a hail storm of this size, there were a huge number of insurance claims for hail damage on vehicles.
Meanwhile, MetService said strong westerlies should remain over central New Zealand this morning.
The forecaster said westerlies could become severe gale strength at times in central Hawkes Bay and northern Wairarapa this morning.
picture worth 1000 words.