Tropical storm threat to the Bay

THE heaviest rain in about three years is predicted to drench the Western Bay over today and tomorrow, with forecasters warning people of raised river levels and surface flooding.
Metservice forecaster Bob Lake said the biggest downpours were expected to hit the region tomorrow but exact details on how long the heavy rain would last and how much would fall were difficult to determine.
"The state of the atmosphere at the moment is a little bit unpredictable," he told the Bay of Plenty Times today. "We've got a front going over the North Island and we're expecting it to stall somewhere over the Bay of Plenty and that could lead to some very substantial rain."
He said with the situation hard to predict, residents needed keep up-to-date with the weather forecasts and follow any advice from local authorities.
He said driving conditions tomorrow could be quite difficult with limited visibility and surface flooding.
"It will be one of those days where people have to be on their guard."
"Certainly it's probably something that we haven't seen for two or three years now.
"The last big rain fall we had was at Matata in 2005 but that was relatively localised."
Mr Lake said for the next three days quite a mild northerly wind would blow across the Bay of Plenty.
"It will be quite blowy, we've got a northerly wind that will be blowing into the Bay."
The temperature is expected to remain around 20C for the next three days.
A tropical trough that hit Northland last night is expected to hang over the whole of the North Island for much of this week.
It was expected to hit Auckland today, bringing a week of wet weather.
High winds are also likely and MetService has issued a gale warning for the Hauraki Gulf and wind warnings for the Waitemata and Manukau harbours. Conditions in the gulf are likely to be at their worst this afternoon, with poor visibility and gusts of 45 knots expected.
Gale warnings have also been issued for coastal areas from Taranaki to Cape Reinga in the west and back down to East Cape in the east.
The trough, originating near Lord Howe Island northwest of New Zealand, is expected to bring up to 100mm of rain a day in some places.
As the trough spreads south, the rain is predicted to hit the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel hardest, and official warnings of heavy rain - more than 100mm over 24 hours - are expected.
MetService's Bob McDavitt said yesterday the rain in those two regions would probably set in solidly today and tomorrow and some flooding was likely.
Drought-stricken Waikato and Taranaki farmers will get some relief - their arid paddocks should get a good soaking for the first half of this week, and showers are forecast to continue for the rest of the week.
The rain is also good news for power companies, which have been anxiously watching falling hydro lake levels.
But at least the weather won't be too cold, Mr McDavitt said.
April temperatures had averaged 16.8C - 0.6C warmer than usual.
That was good news for the farmers, as they needed rain before soil temperature became too low for grass to grow.
Mr McDavitt said La Nina was still pushing warmer weather from the tropics to New Zealand, a pattern likely to continue for a while. But shorter days were bringing colder weather and New Zealand could expect a normal winter.
- With NZPA