Dry month does not spell a drought

It is not a drought in Rotorua yet, despite the dry weather.

Last month was the second driest October for Rotorua since records began in 1963, but farmers say conditions are not dire.

Rotorua had 25mm of rain in October which was only 22 per cent of the normal average rainfall for our area in October.

However, Rotorua/Taupo Federated Farmers committee member Neil Heather said he had not noticed any problems so far.

Mr Heather said farmers could always do with more rain and the wet conditions yesterday were not really enough.

He said, while last month might have been the driest October in a long time, it took a lot more for Rotorua to get into a drought.

"It might have been the driest but we have fairly high rainfall anyway here, so we tend to get a lot more than we need to keep the grass growing. They [the figures] might look dire but they are not bad as far as growing grass goes."

The mean daily maximum temperature was 17.4C, which is 1C higher than the average temperature for the month. Rotorua had 222 hours of sunshine last month.

In Taupo, last month was the driest October since records began in 1949, with only 10mm of rain falling.

The report also said Whakatane was the second highest sunny spot in New Zealand so far this year, with Blenheim having 2239 hours of sunshine from January 1 to October 31 and Whakatane having 2212 hours of sunshine during the same period.