One of Christchurch’s wettest days since records began

Friday, 2 May 2025

The wet weather that lashed Canterbury and prompted state of emergency declarations in Selwyn and Christchurch fell at record rates not seen in more than 50 years.

Christchurch experienced its wettest April day since MetService records began in 1943 and was in the top five wettest days recorded all year round, meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said.

Between 9am Wednesday and 9am Thursday, Christchurch recorded 80.2mm of rain, nearly double its April average of 44mm.

The city’s wettest day on record was in January 1980 when 110.4mm fell.

Across the entire weather event, Banks Peninsula was worst hit in Canterbury, recording about 300mm of rain between 12am Wednesday to 7am Friday, meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said.

Lincoln in Selwyn recorded 131mm of rain in that time Christchurch had 116mm.

Read more: Farmer’s plea to open lake fell on ‘deaf ears’

The inundation filled Christchurch’s stormwater basins Thursday evening, increasing the risk of floodwater affecting properties near the upper Heathcote River.

It cut off large areas of Banks Peninsula, including Little River and Akaroa where a slip and crack in the road prompted residents to evacuate homes on Lighthouse Rd.

A state of emergency remained in place in Christchurch and Selwyn on Friday morning.

Leeston, Southbridge, Doyleston and the Lower Selwyn Huts were among the worst flood-affected spots.

Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger said the emergency declaration was a precautionary measure due to the impact of flooding, slips, landslide and falling trees, particularly on Banks Peninsula.

As of 7.30pm Thursday, Fire and Emergency received 61 calls for help across Canterbury, including rescuing a woman and two children trapped on a bridge surrounded by floodwaters about 11.35am, a spokesperson said.

Roads and schools closed across the region due to flooding, fallen trees or slips.

There were fears massive retention ponds above the Heathcote River - holding more than a million cubic metres of water - could pose a risk.

Authorities were closely monitoring the situation, as the ponds are designed to help manage flooding but could 'cause grief' if overwhelmed, Mauger said.

The Heathcote River breached in some areas.

Selwyn drenched

The Selwyn towns of Leeston, Southbridge, Doyleston and the Lower Selwyn Huts were among the worst affected spots.

“The water is rising really fast, which is a scary thing,” Leeston woman Larisha Toomey said just before midday.

By 4pm Toomey said the water had seeped into their granny flat and garage at their property on the corner of Leeston and Mounces roads and had almost come through the wooden floors of her home.

The five water pumps they had running since 7am were the only thing keeping the water at bay, Toomey said.

In 2023 the rising water also threatened to flood their house.

“It’s a bit of a hard pill to swallow when we’ve been here before.”

Around the corner on Powells Rd Phillip Musson’s home was also under threat.

A fourth generation dairy farmer on the land, he said the property had never flooded until native planting was done in the culverts in 2020.

Their farms were flooded in 2023. This year the water was a foot higher and was at their doorstep.

Musson’s partner Lana Williams was trying to stop the water from breaching her three sliding doors, but there was not much she could do other than watch it rise.

“I’m worried because obviously all this water is going underneath our house.

“This house is over 100 years old, it’s got wooden floors. It’ll start seeping through the carpet soon.”

Dozens of cars remained at homes at the Lower Selwyn Huts on Thursday afternoon, as the Selwyn River rose just metres behind a stop bank.

Sandbags were piled at the open wing of a boat ramp to keep the river at bay, but it was centimetres from breaching the barrier.

Some Lower Selwyn Huts residents had evacuated. At Upper Selwyn Huts, many residents were walking about the village, waiting out the weather.

Danni Hodges was in the warmth of her home with her neighbour’s 20-year-old cat Vino. She evacuated during the 2021 floods, and while there was a voluntary evacuation on Thursday, she was waiting for the stopbank to break before she would leave.

“I went into full panic mode when I got up at 8am this morning, but my friend rang me from around the corner and said, ‘Don’t, it’s not as bad as some other years’,” she said.

That friend was Leigh Rossiter, whose husband, Chris Rossiter, watched the water flow through ECan’s website and said he felt there was no cause for concern.

He said if the river got too high it would spill over the stopbank higher up the road and flow over the paddocks, missing the village.

“A lot of why they evacuate us is because we can’t get in or out if that happens, But if we run out of power, we’ve got two generators, we’re self-sufficient.”

Rain easing

“In the last 12 hours or so it has been markedly less as the rain started to ease off, leaving only a few showers and more breaks in the wet weather,” Makgabutlane said at 7am Friday.

Most places in Canterbury had less than 10mm in the previous 12 hours, which was a “definite notable easing trend”.

For context, 6mm of rainfall an hour is considered heavy, so when peak hourly rates reached up to 10mm in Canterbury on Thursday it 'certainly felt like heavy rain on the ground”, Makgabutlane said.

Friday would bring less persistent rain and most of the wet weather in the Canterbury region should have passed by the end of the day, Makgabutlane said.