Wow. We have good friends in Whangārei — they live at the top of a hill:

220 millimetres [8.66 inches] of rain fell in Whangārei from 7pm last night until around 7am this morning.

we’re expecting that once in 500 years.

And the rain is showing no signs of easing.

@odd Indeed! Especially for that part of NZ.

@Miraz i hope the hill is a big one!

i wish the media would get the whole "one in 500 year" thing right — a one in 500 year rain event doesn't have a chance of happening once every 500 years, it has a 1/500 chance of happening in any one year. sorry that's the stormwater engineer in me :)

@tones Hah! Big enough hill. I think so long as people understand 1 in 500 doesn't now mean there won’t be another one for 500 years — there could be another one tomorrow — surely that’d be enough for us ordinary mortals?