More rain, but more sun too

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The rapid re-appearance of surface and creeks flooding over the weekend showed the region’s saturated soils cannot cope with even small amounts of rain.

This time only the top half of the district had serious amounts of rain. The path of the weather saved the areas south of Tolaga Bay from more than normal winter rain.

However, residents across the district have noted that even small rainfall is enough to start fresh land movement and set back efforts to recover from the accumulated damage of previous events.

Once again, State Highway 35 north of Tolaga Bay was closed by flooding, and the Hikuwai River quickly rose to a peak of 7.67 metres  by 7.30pm on Friday evening.

The Waikura Valley inland from the top of East Cape copped the largest rainfall total over the period with 128mm, and the gauge at the Hikuwai River No4 bridge recorded 123mm.

Most of the steep country at the top of the district had 100mm or more, as did the Wharerata hills, while elsewhere the lesser hill country had 50-90mm.

Coastal areas had up to 50mm and Gisborne had 43mm for a total of 110mm for the month to date.

With saturation the state of the soil, it is no surprise that the National Institute of Soil and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) climate maps show the area has had around 120 percent of normal rainfall.

Despite this, it is surprising the region has had more sun than usual — 115 to 125 percent of the average.

Daily average sunshine is between five and six hours, which is an hour more than usual for the time of year.

And while water-logged soils remain cold, air temperatures are also surprisingly up — point eight of a degree to 1.2 degrees warmer than usual.

The big question is — how much more rain is on the horizon?

With an El Nino developing, that remains an open question, but in the near-term the Gisborne-East Coast region can look forward some immediate relief.

In the next week, there are going to be just a few showers here and there, but it will be cooler, and MetService says we can expect strong south-westerly winds on Wednesday.