Drought conditions in upper North Island rival one of country's worst droughts on record - NIWA

Wednesday, 12 February 2020

Drought conditions in parts of Northland, Auckland and Waikato are now as severe as early 2013, one of New Zealand's worst droughts on record, Niwa says.

The upper North Island - Northland in particular - was experiencing widespread severe meteorological drought. Central Waikato and East Cape were also in meteorological drought, the forecaster said on Wednesday.

The past week saw little if any rainfall across the North Island, with the majority of locations seeing generally less than 5 millimetres of rain.

Northland has been dry since November, on the back of lower than normal rainfall last year.

Nearly all of the North Island has now reached 'hot spot status' - when soils were 'severely drier than normal'. Only a few isolated areas in the central and lower parts of the island did not yet reach this criteria, Niwa said.

* Northland's desperate water moves

* Flooding hits Southland town amid fears worse to come

* 2019 was New Zealand's fourth warmest year on record - Niwa**

Flooding shown from at farm near Gore taken by Alistair Cocks last week. More rainfall is expected across the lower South Island next week, as ex-tropical cyclone Uesi approaches.

The coming week doesn't look likely to bring much relief, with 'very dry' conditions set to continue for the next several few days, Niwa said.

But from early next week - February 17-19 - a moist air mass from ex-tropical cyclone Uesi was forecast to move over the North Island, increasing the chance of scattered moderate to heavy showers and thunderstorms.

Rainfall across the North Island was likely to be inconsistent, Niwa said.

Some areas could receive 10-20mm of rain, while others might see 'substantially more'.

Locations which see the heaviest showers and thunderstorms could see 'at least small' soil moisture increases, however, no significant changes to hot spot locations were expected.

Showers were forecast in the South Island from Thursday, with rainfall about 5mm possible.

Ex-tropical cyclone Uesi was set to reach the West Coast and Fiordland from Sunday through to Tuesday, Niwa said.

This could see an increased chance of heavy rain in the western South Island, where rainfall amounts may exceed 100mm.

Hot spot areas in the top of the South Island could improve during the next week, but those in Canterbury were likely to 'strengthen'.

Last week, a state of emergency was declared in Southland, after days of relentless rain caused flooding.

Elsewhere in the lower South Island, amounts of 50 mm or more will be possible next week, while eastern areas may receive little rainfall due to blocking from the Southern Alps, Niwa said.