SUDDEN SQUALL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2666, 6 September 1937, Page 5

SUDDEN SQUALL

RAIN AT MANGATAWHIRI FLOODING ON HIGHWAY GOLFERS CAUGHT UNAWARES. , Although there was scarcely any rain in Paeroa and none on the Hauraki Plains yesterday, the Mangatawhiri valley and Maramarua experienced a heavy downpour about 1.30 p.m. which continued until four o’clock. Many golfers taking part in the open tournament on the Mangatawhiri Golf Club’s links were caught unawares and soaked to the skin.

The rain was so heavy that it took only about five minutes to make unprotected players dripping wet. Many abandoned their afternoon rounds when the torrent came down a second time.

Highway Flooded.

In the morning the main road was almost dry, each car raising clouds of dust, but in the afternoon from Mangatawhiri nearly to Waitakaruru the highway was almost a stream. In one place near the Mangatangi stream the road was covered with storm water to a depth of about nine inches. The downpour was not steady enough to cause any flooding of the Mangatawhiri stream itself.

Several of these purely local rainstorms have been reported recently in the same district, extending perhaps 20 miles. The valley appears to catch all the rain dropped by clouds striking the Bombay hills.