'Enjoy it': Parts of Hawke's Bay get 58mm of rain in 24 hours

A bit of rain isn't enough to bring down Jack Aitchison, 13, on his bike ride around Havelock North. Photo / Duncan Brown

"Dry January" may be hard to believe in Central Hawke's Bay after Waipukurau got a "quite substantial" 58 millimetres of rain from 3pm on Monday to 3pm on Tuesday.

MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said another band of rain would strike the region on Tuesday evening and would continue on to make a wet Wednesday.

The region was also on thunderstorm watch for the next few days, with downpours of up to 25-40mm an hour possible on Tuesday night.

"The rain band will be quite spread out, so it will be quite sporadically positioned where the downpours actually occur," Murray said.

The amount of rainfall had varied around the region with Central Hawke's Bay recording the most, while Napier recorded a mere 8mm.

Mahia Peninsula recorded a total of 9mm with 4.8mm of rain falling in one hour.

"Hastings had about 6mm of rain in one hour about midday on Tuesday and recorded a total of 24.2mm within 24 hours."

Murray said the region should make the most of the slightly cooler temperatures and enjoy the rain.

The weather was set to clear by Saturday with a high of 25C.