South's lack of snow lifts northern skifields

Two major North Island skifields look set to remain open until Labour Weekend, although lack of snow has seen many of the South Island fields already close.

Whakapapa and Turoa hope to be open for at least another month.

The lack of snow on South Island skifields has proved a bonus for Mt Ruapehu's ski operator as the national skiing championships have been shifted to Turoa later this week.

Five South Island skifields are closed and business had been a struggle at Canterbury's Mt Hutt field, said nzski.com sales and marketing manager David Ovendale.

Scientists won't predict what's in store weather-wise over summer, but Canterbury farmers are already worrying about drought.

Sheep and crop farmer Andrew Gillanders, whose family has farmed at Darfield west of Christchurch for more than a century, said the situation could become serious if the area had the forecast average spring rainfall.

"There's always going to be dry spells in Canterbury, but irrigation wells haven't recharged over winter and river levels are low because there's been no snow and therefore no snow melt," he said.

"At the end of spring we're either going to have had rainfall, or we're going to be closer to drought."

New Zealand had its sixth-warmest winter since records began in the 1860s and at Lincoln, to the south of Christchurch, the lowest rainfall on record so far this year.

In areas around Timaru and Oamaru, a quarter the normal rainfall has been recorded.

"It's been extremely dry in places and average rainfall over spring probably won't be enough to help," said National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) scientist Dr Jim Salinger.

Canterbury and Otago have had less than half normal rainfall overall, and only average rainfall is forecast over the next three months. But power generator Mighty River Power says South Island hydro water reservoirs are at average levels for the time of year and Lake Taupo is at its highest level for five years.

"There's always some scenario we could have that might be worse, but at this point in time things look fine to us," said spokesman Neil Williams.

Niwa forecasts weaker-than-usual westerly winds over New Zealand during spring with average temperatures and normal rainfall except in the east of the North Island and north of the South Island where rainfall could be slightly above average.

Dr Salinger said no El Nino or La Nina weather patterns were forecast over summer but it was too early to be certain.