Thunderstorms and heavy rain to ease in Auckland and Hawkes Bay

Flooded areas in Auckland's North Shore will soon drain away as scattered thunderstorms and heavy rain are expected to head east in the next few hours.

This follows a rain hammering in the morning which saw Albany get 60mm of rain in an hour.

MetService meteorologist Heath Gullery said there were still heavy showers occurring in the Hawke's Bay as well as Auckland, but it would soon die out.

"We should see it easing in the next few hours. By mid-evening it should be done."

The amount of rain falling in the Auckland area on Tuesday varied because of the localised nature of the storm.

Albany had between 60 and 90mm of rain fall through the duration of the day, he said.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) said an incredible 62.4mm of rain fell in the North Shore between 8am and 9am this morning.

Other areas have had between 15 to 30mm of rain, while some may not have seen any rain today, Gullery said.

Tomorrow Auckland would be cloudy with some patchy showers, while Hawke's Bay would be fine, apart from showers in the ranges.

"It's a much different story tomorrow people can look forward to improving conditions."

A thunderstorm hit Napier and Hastings at about 1:30pm today, resulting in some surface flooding.

Two Auckland beaches had been soiled with sewage after torrential rain earlier today caused flash floods and chaos on the North Shore.

A wastewater overflow was detected by Auckland Council after the heavy downpour.

Two swim alerts - in Castor Bay and Milford on the North Shore - came into effect today due to a "high risk" water quality.

Earlier today two motorists in the North Shore needed rescuing from their vehicles after they became submerged in the waist-deep floodwater.

About 14 homes were affected by flooding and firefighters cleared blocked drains to help the water drain away.