Wild weather slamming New Zealand this weekend will continue into the evening - and there's every chance we may see more mini tornadoes like the "seven minutes of fury" in rural Waikato.
WeatherWatch has received reports of small twisters zig-zagging through there and Taranaki.
One of those hit Ron Richardson's Kihikihi property, south-west of Hamilton, at 10.20 last night.
"I didn't see anything but I heard a roaring noise and heard banging, clanging and glass smashing and then the lights went out," he said.
Dawn revealed a hotchpotch mosaic of downed trees and branches and flattened fences.
Roofs on horse shelters were lifted, roofing iron from a neighbour's shed was wrapped around a tree and some of the Richardsons' roses were hurled into a nearby paddock.
"It's an absolute mess," Mr Richardson said. "The house, structurally, is pretty good. Fortunately, we didn't get any big windows broken; we just got a window in the bathroom broken.
"Quite a few of the roof tiles are gone.
"Looking at the path, we struck the full brunt of the tornado."
Mr Richardson said he was in the devastating Cyclone Bola of 1988, in Taranaki. Last night's tornado was more severe.
"This was just seven minutes of fury."
But Mr Richardson said he felt lucky when thinking of the havoc tornadoes can cause in countries such as America.
WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan said weather conditions were "ideal" for small tornadoes, and there could be more in store.
"They are very short-lived. They are similar in size but of course they are damaging. I had one through my house about eight or nine years ago. It lifted roofing iron and took a massive gum tree down," Mr Duncan said.
Often such tornadoes were so localised they would make a mess of one property and not touch the neighbours.
And the wild weather of the past 24 hours looks likely to continue this evening, as two lows make their presence felt.
One is now moving over Taranaki and Waikato from out to sea, while the other is off the Canterbury and Otago coast.
So far today, most of the bad weather has been out to sea, but northern parts of the country may need to batten down the hatches this evening, with heavy downpours, isolated thunderstorms and wind gusts up to 140 km/h forecast for Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty.
The worst of it is expected between 6pm and midnight.
"There could be some damaging winds around Northland and Auckland," Mr Duncan said. "It's a complicated system, there's many moving parts to it."
Down south, the low is intensifying and pushing inland, where again there could be damaging gusts.
Mr Duncan said the good news was dry parts of Canterbury would get some rain.
Wellington, meanwhile, is sandwiched between the two lows. This afternoon it was calm and relatively warm, about 15C, although the odd shower is expected later.
Tomorrow, Auckland and Waikato will be in for a windy and showery day as gusts arrive from the south-west. There will be fine spells too.
Meanwhile, as the two lows merge, more rain is expected for the rest of the country tomorrow and again on Monday, with heavy falls predicted for Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. It will get cooler in the capital.
The first signs of winter are apparent on Mr Ruapehu, where snow has fallen
Snow to excite the ski bunnies. On Ruapehu this morning @PhilipDuncan @WeatherWatchNZ pic.twitter.com/kUo15YErIO
— Ben Haarmann (@waihisurfie) 20 May 2016
"That's good news because it's late - really late," Mr Duncan said. "They can get snow as early as March or April, so they'll be very happy because it's really been dry on all of the ski fields."
With severe weather around, police are warning motorists to take care on the roads, and lines company Vector has extra staff on standby.
