Heavy rain pounds Bay

SLIP: The weather caused a minor slip south of the Ruahihi power station about 12.45pm, causing slight disruption of traffic. PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER

Heavy rain has hit the Bay of Plenty causing surface flooding and a slip - but more is yet to come with a wet weekend forecast.

Metservice communications meteorologist Lisa Murray said Tauranga's average rainfall in September was 92mm, and so far there had been 163mm.

At 4.30pm today, 40.8mm of rain had fallen in the past 24 hours, with a total rainfall of 46.1mm predicted for the day.

"This is way above normal," she said.

Between 9am and 10am today Tauranga had 13.2mm of rainfall, she said.

The weather caused a minor slip south of the Ruahihi power station about 12.45pm, causing slight disruption of traffic.

One lane was blocked off while contractors with a digger cleared the road.

Sections of Tauranga had also experienced surface flooding.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council dealt with few minor flooding calls, most in Te Puke.

These included on State Highway 2 between Te Puna Stream and Barrets Rd, the Omokoroa-Goldstone Rd intersection, Kayelene Place, Omokoroa Glen Terrace and Boucher Ave in Te Puke.

There was also minor flooding on the intersection of No 3. Rd and Macloughlin Drive and Queen St and Raymond Ave in Te Puke.

Tauranga City Council received one call requesting sand bags as a precautionary measure from a Mount Maunganui resident, and calls regarding surface water on roads throughout the city.

"We have put up warning signs for motorists and have cleared the stormwater grates to ensure the water can drain away. Also as a precautionary measure we have taken a storm water pump down to the Historic Village," a council spokeswoman said.

Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty dairy chairman Steve Bailey said it had been "pretty hard" especially for farmers in low-lying parts of the district who were struggling due to ponding on their farms.

"Some farmers are having to take their cows and lambs off their pastures at night," he said.

Mr Bailey said trying to rear lambs outside if it gets wet underfoot was also a struggle.

"At least it's warm rain otherwise there would be lots of lame cows," he said.

MetService expected periods of heavy rain to continue through last night into this morning.

It predicted a northern flow throughout the country on Saturday, which would cause periods of brief heavy rain.

There was a slight possibility of heavy rain reaching warning criteria for the Bay of Plenty, and potential for squally thunderstorms.

Ms Murray said after the rain cleared tomorrow morning, there would most likely be cloud cover, with the rain returning Saturday afternoon and possibly heavy falls on Sunday.