Hawke’s Bay weather: Heavy rain watch extended until Monday night

Wet weather over Perfume Point in Napier on Sunday morning. Photo / Paul Taylor

A large part of Hawke’s Bay can expect further heavy rainfall until late Monday after being saturated over the weekend.

MetService’s heavy rain watch for Hawke’s Bay - which began on Saturday morning - has now been extended until Monday at 9pm for areas south of Te Pohue.

The Wairoa District northeast of Nuhaka also has a heavy rain watch in place until Monday at 6pm.

The heaviest rainfall is expected to continue in the ranges but centres like Napier and Hastings can expect more downpours.

“Rainfall amounts may approach warning criteria, especially about the ranges. Thunderstorms are possible,” the MetService warning read.

A Hawke’s Bay Regional Council weather station, Te Koau, located in the Ruahine Ranges, unofficially measured 70mm of rainfall on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a MetService weather station in Hastings measured rainfall of almost 24mm on Saturday, which made it the wettest day over the past month at that station.

By Sunday mid-afternoon, the same weather station had measured a further 17mm of rain.

Monday is forecast to experience even heavier rainfall at that weather station than what fell over the weekend.

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group encouraged the public to keep up to date with the latest forecasts, in case the MetService weather watch was upgraded.

“There is still uncertainty with the distribution and intensity of the heaviest rain,” a post from HBCDEM read.

“Please keep up to date with the latest forecasts in case this watch is upgraded to a warning or new areas are added.”

To monitor river levels and flows, see www.hbrc.govt.nz/environment/river-levels.

Despite the rainfall, all state highways were open as of Sunday afternoon across Hawke’s Bay, according to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.

HBRC Works Group had staff monitoring the Heretaunga Plains drainage systems over the weekend.