Rain eases to drizzle; mercury passes 30

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Another sub-tropical low prompted an Orange Heavy Rain Warning from MetService but moved through without hanging around to cause problems.

MetService’s earlier rain watch notice changed to an orange-coded warning on Saturday, saying residents in the area north of Tolaga Bay could expect up to 170 millimetres over Sunday and Monday.

MetService yesterday morning advised a further 40 to 60mm could fall. However, the low moved away yesterday and the rain eased to drizzle.

The northern parts of the district still had some big rain totals for the period, especially the East Cape hill country down to Tolaga Bay.

Te Puia township had the largest accumulated rainfall, with the district council’s gauge recording 266mm up to midday yesterday.

Ruatōria had 200mm in the same period, and the Willowflat gauge on the Hikuwai River at Tolaga Bay also recorded near 200mm.

It is interesting to note Tolaga Bay is at its wettest in the past five years. Since Cyclone Gabrielle, Tolaga Bay has had five months in which the rainfall has totalled more than 200mm.

In this latest event, many places in the north had between 100 to 150mm, while around Gisborne and the southern part of the region, falls were far less — up to 50mm.

No further road damage appears to have been added to the council’s list, which has eight roads and five bridges still closed after last year’s devastation.

Meanwhile, Gisborne has finally cracked the 30-degree temperature mark, according to the National Climate Database, with 30 degrees recorded on Saturday. Private recordings at Makaraka had the temperature at  over 34 degrees.

On the wider weather front, meteorologists are watching the development of a deep low in the Coral Sea, which is expected to become a cyclone. Labelled variously 94P or 05U, the various weather agencies now rate the risk of it becoming a cyclone as “high”  but forecast its path will take it south-westward towards Australia and Queensland, not into the Tasman Sea.