Heavy rain watch for northern Hawke’s Bay and ranges

The wet scene today in Napier where about 6mm of rain had been recorded by late morning. Photo / Warren Buckland

Hawke’s Bay was today again on heavy rain watch after downfalls which were heavy in some places overnight along with a new warning from Metservice.

The “rain watch” notice is for the period from 9am today to Saturday at 6am, forecasting heavy rain in the Wairoa district and the ranges of Hawke’s Bay, which “may approach warning criteria.”

It was one of three warnings in place for eastern regions, including forecasting of up to 130mm in some areas north of Gisborne towards East Cape, and for southeast winds possibly approaching “severe gale” in exposed places of Bay if Plenty south of Whakatane.

It put a damp halo over Winter Art Deco events for the weekend, and given disruptions to road networks caused some consternation for such things as wider schools first fifteen rugby competitions, with teams from New Plymouth, Cambridge and Tauranga all due to play Saturday games in Napier or Hastings.

There was also a strong wind watch in place for the area from Taranaki to the Central North Island and Taupo and south to Manawatu and Horowhenua.

Rain was forecast for Hawke’s Bay for most of the weekend before fine weather with westerlies on Monday.

Preceding the gloom, Wairoa’s maximum temperature of 17deg on Thursday was the fifth-warmest nationwide, with the warmest being Whanganui with 19.3deg.

Temperatures weren’t expected above 13deg today and by 11am about 6mm of rain had been recorded at Hawke’s Bay Airport and about 5mm had been recorded at Wairoa.

Both Napier and Mahia have had over 1000mm of rain this year, already well above annual averages with still five months of the year to go.