Hawke’s Bay weather: More rain on way after days of watches and warnings

A lone seagull braves the waves off the Ahuriri coast near Hardinge Rd on Sunday. Photo / Paul Taylor

There’s more rain on the way for Hawke’s Bay this week as residents and councils continue to keep a close eye on the region’s rivers and stopbanks.

Warnings and watches over the weekend and on Monday - as well as a dreary week ahead - have brought little comfort to those in the region still struggling from the ongoing effects of the Cyclone Gabrielle flood.

MetService meteorologist Alwyn Bakker said on Monday afternoon a large band of rain was sitting just offshore from Hawke’s Bay and bad weather was still to come.

He said while the weather would ease a bit for Tuesday, it would ramp up again come Thursday.

“We’ve got another low coming in from the Tasman Sea that’s going to be directing a lot of moist northeasterlies over the country,” he said.

MetService modelling showed there was a low confidence of heavy rain for Hawke’s Bay on Thursday and Friday. Bakker said MetService would continue to update this as more information came to light.

A heavy rain watch was put in place for Hawke’s Bay on Friday after persistent rain.

This evolved to an orange heavy rain warning for and south of Te Pohue on Sunday, which was downscaled to a heavy rain watch until Monday evening.

The northernmost parts of the region had an orange warning in place for seven hours from 8am to 3pm for the Wairoa District northeast of Nuhaka, along with Tairawhiti.

“Heavy rain may cause streams and rivers to rise rapidly. Surface flooding and slips are also possible and driving conditions may be hazardous,” a MetService update said at the time.

Bakker said most of that bad weather had moved off as of Monday afternoon.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council’s social media channels said on Sunday rivers were expected to reach “one-in-five-year” levels and could cause localised flooding and ponding in rural areas.

Wairoa District Council said on social media contractors were working on two major slips as of Monday morning.

The first was between Te Mahia School and Browns Rs and Mahia East Coast Rd, where the road remained closed. An earlier slip in Maungawhio was open to single-lane traffic only.

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group encouraged the public to keep up to date with the latest forecasts.

“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.”

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council assured people on Monday that the region’s flood protection network was holding up and forecast rain wasn’t expected to cause any significant flooding.

We don’t expect [the rain] to cause any significant issues, yet will monitor and maintain our operational readiness over the next two days,” asset group manager Chris Dolley said.

Dolley said the Tutaekuri, Ngaruroro, Waipawa and Tukituki rivers could reach five-year levels on Monday evening, generally considered to be the bottom of the stopbanks.

River levels and flows can be monitored through the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council website.