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Widespread rain over much of the North Island and parts of the South Island over the past week has not stopped some areas from continuing to dry out.
The most recent data from Niwa shows dry soils in the far north, southern Auckland and northern Waikato, the Bay of Plenty coastline and along the coast from Christchurch to northern Otago.
Farmers in those areas will want to avoid something like a repeat of last summer’s extensive dry weather. In March, the Government classified drought conditions as a large-scale adverse event for the entire North Island and the upper South Island as far north as Canterbury, along with the Chatham Islands.
ANDY JACKSON / Stuff
Heavy rains caused flooding in New Plymouth this week.
The three months from December 2019 to February 2020 were the driest – or the second driest – on record for parts of Auckland, Northland and Waikato.
READ MORE:
* After last summer’s drought, Northland, Auckland, North Waikato started to dry up again
* Three-month weather outlook: some areas in the north and east will likely be exposed to subtropical storms
* Drought conditions in the upper North Island rival one of the worst droughts on record in the country – NIWA
* Soils are getting drier in three-quarters of the country; problem areas to be expanded
During the past week, substantial rain of 50mm or more fell across much of the western and central North Island, but Northland and Auckland generally had less than 25mm, Niwa said on Friday in his weekly Hotspot Watch.
On the South Island, small parts of Kaikōura, eastern Marlborough, Tasman and the Banks Peninsula had 30-60mm of rain last week, but most of the South Island had 25mm or less.
Wes Meyer / Supplied / Supplied
There were also floods in Te Awamutu
In the next week, the western and southern parts of the North Island could receive between 30 and 50 mm of rain, while parts of Northland and Auckland could have only 15 mm, and possibly less.
On the South Island, some of the northernmost areas could be about 40mm but, like Northland, only 15mm or less could fall south of Canterbury and the Otago coast.
As a result, soils are likely to dry out further in Northland, Auckland, southern Canterbury and the Otago coast, Niwa said.
DAVID BLANCO / THINGS
The scene in May at the Lower Nihotupu Dam, which is part of Auckland’s water supply. The city’s ban on the use of hoses has just been relaxed, but the water supply dams still have less water than usual for the time of year.
Some useful rain fell on Friday, with MetService registering nearly 17mm at Timaru at 4pm, and more than 8mm at Ashburton.
The Niwa data show that soils across most of the North Island are wetter than at the same time last year. And it’s a similar picture for much of the northwestern South Island.
But a large swath of northwestern Northland is drier than usual for the time of year, as is northern Waikato, southern Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, and also the East Cape.
The soils are drier than usual in much of the South Island, although they are wetter than average in much of the upper part of the island and in some parts of the interior of the deep south.
