Hawke's Bay rain starts but less forecast than in original warnings

First port in a storm for trawlers moored at West Quay Napier on Tuesday afternoon ahead of gales and heavy seas forecast off the coast of Hawke's Bay. Photo / Paul Taylor.

Rainfall of almost 20mm was recorded in some parts of Hawke's Bay in the first few hours of a forecast deluge brought-on by ex-Tropical Cyclone Fili.

The initial heaviest rainfalls on Wednesday had been from Napier up State Highway 5 towards Taupo, according to Hawke's Bay Regional Council on-line rainfall recordings about 9am.

The latest forecast, for areas outside of Wairoa, is suggesting that rain warnings are downgrading to 'rain watch' scenarios.

There had been 27.6mm at Te Pohue in the few hours to 9am, 19mm on the Upper Mohaka River at Te Haroto, 21mm at Glengarry, and 18mm at the Council's own site near the Napier CBD.

In the Wairoa area there had been 13.2mm in the Ruakituri area, scene of some of the greatest devastation in the rain over the last half of March.

There had been 16.5mm on the Wairoa River at Marumaru, south of the Ruakituri Valley, just 9mm at the railway bridge in town, and in Te Urewera there had been 27mm at Aniwaniwa.

On the Napier-Taupo highway, also forecast to take some impact from the weather, driver Rob Johnson reported about 7am on the SH5 Napier-Taupo Issues facebook page that the worst of the rain at that stage had been "along the plains to Waipunga then again at Titiokura to Te Pohue."

Ruakituri Valley farmer Nukuhia Hadfield, whose was bracing for more heavy rain barely having started the recovery from damage caused on Mangaroa Station northwest of Wairoa since 1100mm of rain fell between March 21 and April 1, said mid-morning: "It's good just now, coming and going. It hadn't been something to wake you up (in the night) and go 'Oh god, not again'."

National weather agency updated its heavy rain warning for the Wairoa district just before 10am, saying that for the 19 hours 9am to 4am tomorrow, a further 100-150mm of rain could accumulate on top of that already recorded, but 150-250mm was being forecast in the area of the "Whareratas" on State Highway 2 between Wairoa and Gisborne.

The Wairoa district is on high alert after rain totalling more than 1000mm in some areas in barely a week last month.

Possibilities of 250-350mm had been flagged in a warning 24 hours earlier and in a new forecast for the rest of Hawke's Bay, for the 15 hours from 9am, MetService said "warnable amounts" of rain were no longer expected, a "Watch " would be maintained.

Warnings of gales and heavy seas also impacted in the fishing industry, with trawlers berthed in places three-wide at West Quay in Napier by late afternoon on Tuesday.