Parts of eastern Otago, including Dunedin, look set for a drenching in the next couple of days.

MetService has a raft of warnings in place across the country, including heavy rain watches for Dunedin and North Otago.

The forecaster says the watches are in place from 6am today through to midday tomorrow. It says rainfall could warning criteria, and the watch period could be extended further into Thursday.

It says there will be periods of rain spreading north this morning, becoming more widespread this afternoon and possibly heavy about eastern Otago.

In Westland, MetService has a heavy rain watch in place until 6pm today, with expectations of up to 120mm of rain on the ranges.

The southern watches come in a period of unsettled weather across much of the country that has brought heavy rain, thunderstorms and even tornadoes to some areas, and which are expected to continue today.

This morning is expected to see an increase to a moderate thunderstorm danger for Northland, Auckland and Waikato, with rain intensities of 10 to 25 mm/h, MetService says.

Thunderstorms with locally heavy rain of 10 to 25 mm/h are possible from Northland to Taranaki, including Auckland, and in the Bay of Plenty.

“These thunderstorms are expected to be accompanied by very heavy rain, damaging wind gusts, possible tornadoes and frequent lightning,” MetService reports.

Yesterday morning, a tornado on the Kapitit Coast sent a sleepout containing a teenager airborne, crushing the building and impaling the teen.

Rhiley Stevens (16) required surgery to remove a piece of his bedroom that lodged in his chest.

His mother Jade spoke to The New Zealand Herald from Wellington Hospital and said the sleepout was lifted by the high winds, then dumped back down and destroyed.

“He’s lucky to be alive – the whole bedroom is just completely destroyed.”

New Zealand has been hit by four tornadoes in three consecutive days, with no other reported injuries but property also damaged in east Auckland, the Nelson region and Taranaki.

Niwa principal scientist Chris Brandolino told The AM Show that thunderstorms would continue throughout the week.

“They’ll be gradually easing but still with us,” he said.

Brandolino said there was a chance that the bad weather would clear on the weekend but next week’s forecast looked to be rainy again.

“There could be another heavy rain producer.”

 - additional reporting ODT Online