Northland wet weather on the improve for school holidays

It was a wet winter's day in central Whangārei with umbrellas getting a workout. Photo / John Stone

Low cloud and drizzly rain reduced visibility and forced the cancellation of flights in and out of Whangārei and Bay of Islands airports yesterday.At least two flights from Auckland to Whangārei were cancelled with the pilot of one flight circling twice before pulling the pin and returning to Auckland.

Passengers bound for Auckland who had their flights cancelled were put on a bus.

It was the same scenario for one flight into Kerikeri that was cancelled. Buses took passengers south instead.

The splash of rain would have delighted farmers in the region after MetService announced this week there had been record low January to June rainfall in Northland.

MetService said it had been the driest January to June period on record for Kaitaia, Kerikeri and Whangarei and the second driest January to June period on record for Dargaville.

The six-month rainfall totals sat between 40 per cent and 55 per cent of normal for those regions. Notably, many of these records are long ones, starting 1905 at Dargaville, and 1935 for Kerikeri and Whangarei in 1937.

But the good news is from today the heavy rain band that passed across Northland over the past two days had moved on with conditions set to improve in time for the school holidays.

MetService meteorologist Kyle Leesaid there was a possibility of a few thunderstorms in Northland this afternoon but it would be mostly fine weather come Saturday. Sunday was also looking good for outside activities for the kids on holiday.

"There might be a few isolated showers but it is more settled weather for the start of the holidays which will delight many parents," Lee said.

With the wind swinging to the southwest temperatures may drop, but would become more normal for this time of year.

Overnight temperatures would drop to about 4C but during the day would climb to 14C or 15C.

MetService figures showed for the 18 hours to 2pm yesterday 40mm of rain had fallen in Opononi, 38.4mm in Kerikeri, 34.1mm in Kaitaia, 24.4mm in Dargaville and 21mm in Whangārei.

And for the 24 hours to 3pm there were six crashes reported to Northland police with none being serious.

One of those was in Opononi where a car, with two people, went off the road and struck a power pole. The two people were treated by St John for moderate injuries and the cracked pole was fixed by the power company. Power was cut to 326 homes in Opononi and was still out at 5pm yesterday.

The Rawene Fire Brigade were turned back from the job but on their way back to the station unblocked a drain that had caused some flooding across State Highway 12 just out of Opononi.

However, motorists were keen to dob in drivers not adhering to the conditions with 23 driving complaints reported to police during the same period.