In the 24 hours leading up to 7am this morning, 109,000 lightning strikes were recorded over New Zealand and our surrounding waters, with 18,000 over the land.
Previously our records had only seen 44,000 strikes over both land and sea.
Thunderstorms can bring localized flooding and downpours which have caused disruptions to travel.
Later today and during Monday there will be a change to the weather pattern as a cold front moving up the country sees the rain over the South Island easing to showers, with the showers slowly becoming few and far between.
As the cold front moves northeast across the North Island, the frontal rain eases to a mix of fine weather and isolated showers during Monday morning, although there is a chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms popping up over inland areas. Tuesday looks like a mainly fine day, as a ridge moves over central and northern parts of the country.
Reader Comments
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I seem to recall an eruption there as recently as 2014. Sometimes shit just happens and nature just does it's thing.
I would be more convinced that something other than coincidence were at work though, if a massive increase in lightning activity correlated with a significant spike in seismic activity bearing in mind the link between piezoelectricity in stressed quartz and the ionosphere, especially if combined with abnormal TEC readings as recorded above Christchurch just prior to the 2011 quake sequence.