Cyclone Pam brings relief for farmers

Cyclone Pam brought much needed rain but many regions are still dry. Photo / Paul Taylor

Cyclone delivers much needed rain to North Island but South Island still in grip of drought.

Cyclone Pam has come with a silver lining for many farmers, bringing much-needed rain to most parts of the North Island but not enough to make a meaningful difference for the drought-stricken South.

Parts of Otago, Canterbury and Marlborough have remained in drought, but the latest dose of rain is likely to take the pressure off the Ministry for Primary Industries to declare other parts of the country as being affected by a so-called "medium-scale adverse event".

"Certainly farmers in the North Island, as far as we can establish, have had plenty of rain," Federated Farmers spokesman Don Carson said.

"It's a bit close to winter, and if temperatures fall there won't be much grass growth coming out of it, but North Island farmers are no longer praying for rain, put it that way.

"In the South Island, the further south you go the more acute the problem has been, and there does not look to be much rain heading in that direction."

MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths said that most of the country received some rain this month.

"Mobile fronts and northwesterly rainfall characterised the start of March, while Cyclone Pam brought significant rain to the east of the North Island in the middle of the month," she said.

Gauges in the western half of the North Island have seen around 40mm of rainfall since the start of the month, due to northwesterly rainfall and some solid afternoon showers.

The cyclone brought significant rainfall to eastern Northland, Coromandel, much of Bay of Plenty, and the eastern North Island during the past few days.

Most of Gisborne recorded around 100mm during the cyclone - with higher elevations picking up more than 200mm - while parts of Hawkes Bay and the Wairarapa received around 50mm.

The South Island's western regions have experienced 200 to 300mm of rain, mostly thanks to northwesterlies at the start of the month.

Southland, Nelson and Marlborough have clocked up a helpful 40mm but rainfall has been quite patchy for Central Otago and the east of the South Island.

"Soil moisture levels in Canterbury and Central Otago remain in significant deficit," Griffiths said.

"And another solid top-up of rain is also needed for coastal Otago, Marlborough, Waikato, and for the southwest North Island from Taranaki to Palmerston North before we break the back of this drought."

The outlook for the remainder of March is promising, with mobile fronts expected to bring intermit-tent rainfall into most areas of the country.

Last month Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy officially declared drought conditions on the east coast of the South Island as being a "medium-scale adverse event".