Farmland around Whanganui is drying up. Whanganui Chronicle photograph by Bevan Conley.
Farmland around Whanganui is drying up. Whanganui Chronicle photograph by Bevan Conley.
A dry and windy January - with temperatures escalating in the final week - has brought water restrictions and increased fire danger across the region.
It's even drier inland, with water use restricted in Ruapehu towns National Park, Ohakune and Raetihi. Whanganui District Council has not imposed restrctions but isasking the public to conserve water.
Whanganui's average January rainfall is 58.3mm, MetService meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree said, but year the district got just 5.4mm, less than 10 per cent of the average, with most of that falling on January 13.
Rangitīkei is also particularly dry, and Horizons Regional Council has asked 68 people with consent to take water to stop their non-essential takes and reduce other takes.
River levels have fallen below their minimums for health at 21 of 39 sites across the region that Horizons monitors.
Soil moisture is well below average - but not as low as that further north. Drought was declared from northern Waikato northward on January 18, and has become severe in some areas since then.
Small parts of the southern South Island were the only parts of New Zealand to get the normal amount of rainfall last month.
Another feature of the January weather was smoke and haze blown across the Tasman from the raging bushfires in Australia. It was especially thick early in the month.
Temperatures tend to be hotter inland than at the coast. On January 26 Ohakune experienced its second highest January temperature since 1962, Niwa said. Its high was 31.1degC.
The Ruapehu town also recorded average minimum temperatures across the month - 7.3degC - more than 2degC lower than its January average.
The month began with cooler sea temperatures, a southerly air flow and high pressure to the west of New Zealand. Temperatures climbed after January 23, when northwest winds brought warmer air across from Australia.
Even so, Whanganui's average top temperature last month was 25.7degC, 2degC lower than previous January highs.
The highest New Zealand temperature recorded in January was a massive 38.2degC, in Gisborne on January 31. That is the fifth highest January temperature on record.
Wind was a feature of Whanganui's January, most of it was westerly, and Crabtree said there was more than usual. On January 6 gusts of 91kph felled trees and took out power supply to 7,100 Manawatū/Whanganui households.
