Rainfall across Hawke's Bay 40 per cent up on average

Flooding during heavy rain in Hawke's Bay in late-March. Photo / NZME

Rainfall this year at one Northern Hawke's Bay recording station is almost a metre greater than its January–October average, according to Hawke's Bay Regional Council figures.

Council team leader Marine Air and Land Science Dr Kathleen Kozyniak said today rainfall at remote Mt Manuoha, a 1392-metre peak in forest park Te Urewera, between Wairoa and Rotorua, was by mid-October 959 millimetres above a January-October average of 2415mm.

Awanui, on the Heretaunga Plains, had already had 766mm – almost 63 per cent up on its all-of-year average of 470mm.

They are two of the extremes on a network of about 40 gauges across the plains and mountains of Hawke's Bay, including the upper reaches of the rivers and streams, helping the council with advance warning of potential flooding and other data in a region across the four local body areas of Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay.

Kozyniak says rainfall across the region averages 40 per cent more than average, with records of rainfall at several sites and soil moisture levels "well above median levels for this time of year".

"In many cases, soil moisture levels are at field capacity or have reached saturation," she said. "At some locations, such as our site in Waipukurau, and our Cricklewood Climate site in northern Hawke's Bay, soil moisture is at the highest level on record for the time of year."

On the roads, the rain has caused slips and subsidence and contributed to potholing, making travel, notably in Northern Hawke's Bay where more than $25 million worth of road repairs are necessary, challenging.

Earlier this month government highways management agency Waka Kotahi NZTA urged caution for travellers on State Highway 2 from Napier to Wairoa, SH5 from Napier to Taupō, and SH50 to Takapau.

According to a regional council media release, Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway says while city people might be tired of wet weather, they should spare a thought for farmers, where too much rain and saturated soil is bad news for livestock, the growing season, and harvests to come.

The rain, while welcome after two very dry years, is taking a toll on the primary sector, he says, and Hawke's Bay has been told of continuing on-farm issues in the Wairoa district where farmers are still unable to reach parts of the properties six months after the worst of the damage.

"It's still moving," one farmer said while at the Hawke's Bay A and P Show last week.

Galloway said: "There's been lots of mud, so cattle are pugging, which will affect grass regrowth."

Conditions underfoot and lack of sunshine mean young stock don't thrive as they should.

"We've lost the top off the lambing percentage, and dairy yields have been affected too," he said. "It's been a slow spring, with soil temperatures down.

It has also been "a nightmare" for cropping interests, with many growers unable to do the groundwork to get crops planted on time.

"Some are weeks behind," he said. "For some of those who have planted, there have been areas where plants drowned."

There has been the barest respite this week, with fine days since Labour Weekend and no rain forecast until at least Sunday.