In Levin, residents were woken by torrential hail nearly the size of golf balls, and what they are describing as a tornado.
MetService says it recorded a wind gust of 140 kilometres per hour in Levin, and it's asking for any footage or pictures of this morning's storm so it can definitively say whether it was indeed a tornado or a thunderstorm collapsing in on itself.
The forecaster also detected nearly 11,000 lightning strikes between midnight and 7-o'clock.
Further north, Waikato and Auckland were whipped by strong winds and thunderstorms, temporarily closing the Harbour Bridge.
RNZ senior reporter Ruth Hill spoke to Māni Dunlop from Levin's main street.
