Nuku‘alofa experienced dark overcast skies this morning as thunderstorms dumped above average rainfall, flooding roads and homes in low-lying areas in just 24 hours.

Heavy thunderclouds passing over the capital turned the morning into twilight and Shoreline Power turned on the streetlights along Vuna Road for about an hour to help improve the visibility for traffic during the downpours.

The Tonga Meteorological Office at Fua'amotu recorded 62mm of rain dumped in Nuku'alofa between 10:00 pm last night to 10:00am this morning, which is above the 29.6mm daily maximum of rainfall for March.

Fua'amotu's 11:30 am weather forecast to midnight tomorrow (Thursday) for Tongatapu and 'Eua is overcast with occasional rain, heavy at times with isolated thunderstorms and flash flooding in low lying areas. Elsewhere will have cloudy periods with scattered showers.

The rain also caused various Primary and High schools to finish early for the day, and thousands of students splashed their way home through flooded areas of Nuku'alofa.

By evening the rain had stopped and sun was coming through but large areas of Nuku'alofa remained flooded.

This year heavier than usual rainfall was forecast as a high probability for January-March.

It follows heavy rainfall in February when a day of record rainfall brought severe flooding to the capital.