TORRENTIAL RAIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22616, 20 April 1948, Page 4

TORRENTIAL RAIN

LAST NIGHT’S STORM THUNDER AND LIGHTNING Last night for the second time within 48 hours, torrential rain fell in the Gisborne district, this time being accompanied by an electrical storm, with vivid flashes of lightning and loud peals of thunder. Thunderstorms on the east coast of the North Island were not forecast from Wellington yesterday, but the instability of the air following Saturday night’s storm was their apparent cause. The thunderstorm chain apparently worked down the coast as there was a heavy storm at Tauranga shortly after 3 p.m. yesterday. The first sign of the Gisborne storm was at 5 p.m., when heavy drops of rain ‘fell, and by 6 p.m. heavy rain had set in Shortly afterwards flashes of lightning and peals of thunder could be heard in the northwest and by 8 p.m. the thunderstorm appeared to be practically over the Gisborne district. The rain cleared by about midnight. During the storm .44in of rain fell at the meteorological station, Darton Field, to bring the total fall for April to 4.98 in. <

Although heavy rain also fell in the back-country, the rivers did not again rise. Heavy Rain in Waioeka Passengers travelling by service ear from Opotiki to Gisborne later yesterday afternoon experienced what must have been practically a cloudburst when they were about the middle of the Waioeka Gorge. An old Gisborne identity who was in the car said this morning that he had never in his lifetime seen such heavy rain. “It formed practically a solid sheet, and the service car was forced to stop for a time until the rain eased slightly,” he said. The traveller paid a tribute to the car driver, who had the unenviable task of driving the heavy bus through the rain on a heavily soaked and greasy road. One small slip was encountered in the gorge, but the stones were quickly removed by the service car driver. Although this morning dawned fine in Gisborne, cumulous clouds were again building up in the north-west by mid-morning and there appeared a possibility that the weather would be showery before night-fall.