Thunderstorms and rain hit Whanganui, but more rain needed

Whanganui Airport had 11.6mm of rain between 7pm and midnight on Sunday

Whanganui's skies were hit with thunder on Sunday night, along with some much-needed rain for the district.

MetService's Tui McInnes said rainfall in the Whanganui area "probably wasn't as big as some people would have thought".

"Whanganui Airport had 11.6mm of rain between 7pm and midnight on Sunday, which is a reasonable amount."

The northernmost tip of the Whanganui region, west of Waiouru, recorded 24.9mm of rain from Sunday afternoon till midnight.

McInnes said there would be scattered showers on Tuesday and Wednesday, but dry weather would return till at least the middle of next week.

"The good news is that the wind is slowly turning to come off the sea, as opposed to off the ranges, so that will stop any sheltering from taking place."

President of Federated Farmers Whanganui, Mike Cranstone, said the small amount of rain farmers had received in the past month or so had helped to "green the pastures up a bit", but more rain was needed to "kickstart the growth of feed to take into winter".

"Farmers desperately need a kind, warm, May.

"Autumn growth has had a few false starts, and we need longer periods of persistent rain, as opposed to thunderstorms and fleeting showers."

President of Federated Farmers Whanganui, Mike Cranstone Photo / Supplied

Cranstone said time was running out to build feed levels and encouraged farmers to use feed-budgeting resources and assistance that both Federated Farmers and Beef and Lamb New Zealand had available on their websites.

"Farmers still have a huge backlog of stock to be killed because of Covid-19 restrictions on meat processors, so not only are we not growing as much as we usually would, there's also a lot of stock that still need to be fed.

"Any rain we get is fantastic, and hopefully we're moving in the right direction."