But the forecast hot days in the week between now and then will worsen an already serious situation.
In the next seven days temperatures will climb to 30 degrees-plus each day.
Showers forecast today were not expected to amount to much more than a few drops, no better than late yesterday.
Federated Farmers provincial president Charlie Reynolds said the situation was “horrifically dry” for most parts of the district.
“Except for Matawai and Motu. They are holding their own at the moment but everywhere else is feeling it. We will make inquiries with the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Primary Industries about a drought declaration for the district in the next two weeks unless we get significant rain.”
Mr Reynolds said a solid week of rain would be needed to make a difference.
“The ground is so hard we need 15 millimetres a day for five days to penetrate and lift soil moisture levels. There are also a few people starting to suffer from a lack of on-farm stock water supplies.
“Dams are drying up on some properties.”
Feed suppliesStock feed supplies have also been affected.
“Anyone who has a lot of cattle, as opposed to a lot of sheep, has a lot of feed left but for many predominantly sheep farmers, feed supplies are dwindling.”
Croppers spoken to have said “the drought is here now. We are living the drought now.”LeaderBrand farm production manager Gordon McPhail said the situation was as bad as his family could remember.
“The relentless heat each day is the real killer. All the crops are suffering, even crops with irrigation. With water restrictions the situation will only get worse,” Mr McPhail said.
“We could take 100 millimetres of rain right now and the ground would soak it up straight up.”
Cedenco Foods managing director Tim Chrisp said the dry conditions had certainly started to affect the company’s crops.
“Harvest conditions are wonderful and the sweetcorn we are getting in tastes fantastic.
“Our tomato crop looks good, with harvest due to start late next week. The crop is holding its own due to irrigation but yields will be affected.”
Daily water usage in the city has slowly risen again following the recent hot days.
“Average daily consumption over the past 14 days has been 22,250m3/day. In the past two days consumption has been 29,160 and 25,800, which has meant that our reservoirs have lost storage,” said water utilities manager Neville West.
“At the current rate of consumption, the Mangapoike dams will reach our storage alert level in four weeks, which will also coincide with industry commencing full production.
“As a result, the council will move to Water Alert Level 2 tomorrrow and ban the use of sprinklers.
“We will review the effect of this next week and the need for further intervention.”
Irrigators restrictedThe council last Friday renewed a water shortage direction for the Te Arai River catchment. Irrigators remain on water restrictions.
Shared services science manager Lois Easton said levels in the Waipaoa River had also dropped significantly.
“If river levels continue to fall, then it is likely that some irrigators will have to cease watering altogether.”
The council has operated the Waipaoa treatment plant since Tuesday in order to save water in the Mangapoike dams.
The dry weather has also been a worry for people on household water supplies.
“We are flat-out carting water right now, and have been since Christmas basically,” said George Hollamby from Gisborne Water.
“It really started to pick up last week and right now we are booked up until Tuesday next week. I cannot see this very high demand tapering off any time soon.”
Other water carriers have been busy too.
As one carrier put it yesterday: “the demand is just mental”.
• Gisborne airport recorded a scant 4mm of rain in January, while Napier airport recorded 5.4mm.
“It was the driest January at both locations in records starting in 1905 and 1950,” said MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths.
“The north and east of the North Island experienced very dry conditions in January, due to high pressure sitting around Cape Reinga and howling westerly winds.”
That weather pattern is predicted to continue well into February.
