New Zealand’s 2023 has been dominated by wild and wet weather since day one, with the month of May being no different.
Last night there was rain, hail, thunder and lightning that had Aucklanders talking. Tāmaki Makarua’s prized landmark, the SkyTower, was even hit by the wild weather! Many people must have been expecting it to strike the building as they had the cameras ready to go… and the results are amazing.
Footage and photos were shared on Auckland’s Reddit page for the online community to enjoy.
One video titled ‘Epic viewing of lightning striking sky tower’ shows the whole family looking towards the CBD when BANG! Lightning strikes.
Another video was captured from an apartment in the city centre, which is much closer to the Sky Tower, showing the massive flash the lightning made.
The thunder sound captured in the next video proves it was quite the night for Aucklanders, let’s hope all the pets were okay!
Windiness also played a factor in the overall turbulent nature of the night’s weather with this next video capturing just that.
Finally, a few well-timed photos show the branches of lightning coming down from the skies and landing right plonk on top of New Zealand’s most famous building.
The weather continued into the next morning, with the rain and lightning dying out eventually but a cold snap settling in for Aucklanders to wake up to.
NZ Weather Watch tweeted: "If the weather this week was a 3-course meal, then today is the dessert," in reference to the cold temperature.
They did add though, that the wild weather will pass by the day's end.
"Stormy weather has peaked (or peaks this morning) - but still a few more squalls, thunderstorms & gusts to gale force before the day is over."
