Drought not over despite weekend rain

Weekend rain has delivered further relief to parched eastern areas of Northland but the region overall still requires significantly more rain to end its worst drought in decades.

The Northland Regional Council says while some places like the area north of Kawakawa received up to 70mm rain over the weekend, others – like Dargaville and Kaitaia – received little or none.

Dale Hansen, the Council’s Water Resources/Hydrology Programme Manager, says once again, the latest rain was very welcome, but quite variable.

Regional Council figures for the period from midnight Friday to 8am today (subs: Mon 10 May) show the eastern areas from Coopers Beach in the Far North down to Puhipuhi north of Whangarei were the main beneficiaries of the weekend rain.

Rainfall in those areas varied from about 40mm to 70mm and would have helped fill water tanks, water pastures and improve critically low river levels for the next few days. Those areas probably still required similar amounts of rain over the next week to make a lasting impression on the drought.

However, Mr Hansen says other parts of the region had not fared so well, Kaitaia receiving just 8.3mm over the weekend and the southern parts of Whangarei about 15 to 25mm.

“These areas still require quite considerable amounts of rain – probably upwards of 100mm - to have any real impact at all on the drought.”

Mr Hansen says further rain is forecast over the next few days, however, to put the water situation into perspective, Northland is still short 400mm of rain that would usually have fallen over the past six months.

“Even if we get normal rain over winter, that 400mm shortfall will still effectively be there, affecting both groundwater and stream levels and there is a very real chance of drought again next summer. Soil moisture deficits are also currently large over much of the region.”

With those factors in mind, officials are advising farmers to seek advice on feed budgeting over the winter months if they have not already done so.

With the drought now into its seventh month, the region is already experiencing feed shortages and officials fear that situation could worsen over winter.

Mr Hansen says a range of drought-related information can be viewed on the Regional Council’s website via: www.nrc.govt.nz/drought