Dannevirke: Rain gods soak Norsewood but miss Dannevirke

No rain for Dannevirke but just a few miles up the road at Norsewood, it bucketed down.

While there was barely enough rain to wet rain gauges around Dannevirke on Saturday night, just a few miles up the road at Norsewood, it bucketed down.

"Around 7pm on Saturday the skies opened up above Norsewood, with one heck of a cloudburst," Norsewood weather-watcher Lyn McConchie said. "Within 10 minutes lower areas on the lawn were several inches deep in water and my geese were alternating between rain dances to encourage that and taking enthusiastic dips in the deepening water.

"After 40 minutes the gaggle felt they'd had enough and decamped to sit in the woodshed. Even geese can have too much of a good thing. An hour after it began the rain stopped."

In that hour Ms McConchie said upper Norsewood had received 46mm of rain.

However, Dannevirke did not get a fraction of the rain Norsewood did.

"It looks likely this cloudburst was something which came off the Ruahine Ranges and as we're so close to them, we got it."

This month Norsewood has received 50mm of rain.