More rain coming, gusty southerlies to continue: MetService

Rain, rain go away . . . come again another day. File picture

The latest rain over the Gisborne-East Coast region does not appear to have caused any serious problems although it is keeping the region’s soils at saturation level.

The slopes of the Raukumara Ranges have copped most of the recent rain, with no significant deluges along the coastal strip so far.

An indication of how much rain falls in the northern ranges is given by the Raukumara Station gauge total for May — a staggering 1122 millimetres.

Gisborne District Council’s road damage list remains at 43 with restrictions of some sort, and of those, 12 are still closed. Go to tinyurl.com/yx55bu2a for locations and more information.

There have been no alarming rises in the district’s river levels so far. However, the Hikuwai River at Tolaga Bay had risen to the 6.8-metre mark by mid-morning yesterday.

The rain was expected to ease but pick up again tomorrow. MetService said it had moderate confidence of warning amounts of rain for Gisborne over Friday and Saturday.

Those looking for clothes-drying weather will have to wait a while longer.

The outlook is for this low to hang around to the east, and for another low to develop to the west of the North Island.

This means an extended forecast for southerly conditions and continuing doses of rain through to Thursday of next week.

Gusty southerly winds are expected to continue. Gusts have so far reached just over 50kmh.