Extreme weather strikes Southland

ROBYN EDIE/Southland Times

MOPPING UP: Senior firefighter Matt Whyte sweeps water back into a drain after the Invercargill firestation flooded.

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Water poured into businesses and houses in Invercargill and parts of Southland after an intense mid-afternoon thunderstorm, hail and heavy rain today.

The heavens opened, punctuated by thunder, lightning, lashing rain and hail about 2pm.

The extreme weather all but over within 15 minutes, but, it was long enough to wreak havoc across the city.

Gutters, spouting and stormwater systems quickly flooded as beads of hail clogged them, before spilling into the streets and into buildings.

While heavy rain fell across all of Invercargill, hail was isolated to north and central parts of the city, while south Invercargill escaped the falling ice.

The Fire Service was deluged with calls for help as gutters and stormwater systems struggled to cope and to fire alarms triggered by the storm.

MetService forecaster Tuporo Marsters said weather radars detected "intense'' storm activity to the southeast of Invercargill about 2pm.

While, the storm was "significant'' it was not enough to generate a tornado, he said.

The stormcell moved quickly to the southeast and away from the city bringing cloudy but warmer temperatures in its wake, but the MetService was predicting the possibility of isolated thunderstorms right through until tomorrow night, Mr Marsters said.

- © Fairfax NZ News