Tauranga has had more than a year's worth of rain with four months to spare and is on track to have one of the wettest years on record.
Metservice meteorologist Georgina Griffiths said in the first eight months 1344mm of rain had been recorded in Tauranga, 155mm more than the average annual rainfall of 1189mm. In Te Puke, 1944mm of rainfall had been recorded this year, 302mm more than the normal annual amount of 1642mm.
Ms Griffiths said with four months of the year left and rainfall forecast for the city, it was possible Tauranga could see up to 1800mm of rain, making it one of the top five wettest years since records began in 1898. The highest recording was in 1962 when 2050.1mm of rain had fallen.
"All it would take was a couple of storms," she said.
A big chunk of this year's rain had fallen in March and April, with 568.6mm of rain recorded and Ms Griffiths said it hadn't really stopped since.