Fanshawe Street from the Air New Zealand office in Auckland's CBD (Photo: Darryn Fouhy)
Flooding on Dominion Road, Auckland (Photo: Lachlan Forsyth)
Flooding in Albany (Photo: Aaron Morrell)
Flooding inside the Auckland University library (Photo: Faisal Halabi)
Flooding on Great North Road (Photo: Hayden Bentley)
Hugh Green Drive in Albany (Photo: Pure Energy NZ)
A flooded doorway in Auckland (Photo: Webdrivenz)
Flooding on Queen St (Photo: Jovan Milovic)
Fanshawe St (Photo: Darryn Fouhy)
Flooding outside the Mr Vintage Store on Great North Road (Photo: Joe Carrington)
Watch the video for user footage from Bush Road in Albany
By 3 News online staff
High winds and heavy rain wreaked havoc around Auckland this afternoon with power lines downed and a roof lifted off a building on Pitt St in the central city.
About 4500 customers lost power this afternoon, with outages reported in Browns Bay, Beachlands, Clevedon, Maraetai, Oneroa, Onetangi, Rotoroa Island, Whitford, Warkworth and Waiheke Island.
Vector says power has now been restored to all areas.
As of about 3pm, the rain had passed through central Auckland, heading south over the Bombay Hills, northern Waikato and the southern Coromandel Peninsula. A separate heavy rain band is also expected in Taranaki, with the potential for similar flooding.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued earlier for Auckland, Coromandel, Northland and the Waikato, with heavy rain and flooding expected across the region.
MetService weather radar detected severe thunderstorms near Auckland, Warkworth, Orewa, Puhoi, Inner Hauraki Gulf, Matakana and Whangaparaoa.
Send in your pictures of the weather to noles@tv3.co.nz.
The roof of a building in the Auckland CBD was blown off in the weather, blocking traffic to Hobson St.
Police confirmed part of Hobson St was closed from Cook St because of debris on the road.
Debris from billboards also caused trouble.
At 12:50pm, WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters released a weather warning for Auckland saying torrential rain was currently moving south over the city from the north and warned people to watch for localised flash and surface flooding.
There was also a low risk of a tornado.
The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management advised people to stay indoors and secure loose objects around the house.
Motorists were advised to drive slowly and be prepared to stop if the flooding is too severe.
3 News