The Karewarewa at Raukawa Rd in Bridge Pā, near Hastings, on Sunday. Photo / Paul Taylor
The Karewarewa at Raukawa Rd in Bridge Pā, near Hastings, on Sunday. Photo / Paul Taylor
Rain that could relieve Hawke's Bay's increasingly parched countryside is weeks, and potentially months away, forecasts suggest.
But farmers say they're far better prepared than they were for the drought of 2020, and there's no need to hit the panic button yet.
MetService meteorologist Ashlee Parkes said while isolated and scattered showers up north in the Wairoa district are set to continue, the rest of Hawke's Bay could expect its long dry spell to largely persist this week.
"Further south you're a little bit sheltered, the Napier region, so it has been dry since about the 10th of [January]," she said.
Parkes said a front crossing the lower South Island was set to reach Hawke's Bay on Thursday and Friday:
"It does look like there will be a little bit of precipitation with that, a few showers, but no heavy rain or relieving precipitation unfortunately."
Metservice isn't forecasting much rain for Hawke's Bay south of Wairoa district for the next two weeks. Photo / Paul Taylor
The following week is set to bring a northeasterly flow to the region, with a weak broad low pressure anomaly crossing the northern half of the North Island.
However Parkes said climate models don't indicate any significant precipitation within that at this point.
Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway said rain in November might have flooded Napier, but it had potentially saved their summer, with more feed around than normal.
Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway says as long the rain comes in autumn things should be okay. Photo / File
Water supply could start become an issue for some farms, with one stream in Bridge Pā making national headlines already for running dry in the space of a single week.
The Karewarewa Stream in Bridge Pā is now a mix of dried mud and stones, having been deep enough to swim in just one week earlier.
Part of the exposed riverbed is adjacent to Mangaroa Marae and its chairman Cordry Huata told RNZ the state of it was tragic.
"The water is the waitahi when you destroy the wairua. When you destroy the waitahi you destroy the wairua. It is our playground, it's our kids playground, it was our playground, it was our food source," Huata said, adding it had been happening more often due to changes in land use.
"The community has gone from a sheep farming area, which doesn't need a lot of water, as opposed to a wine growing area, that takes a lot of water."
Karewarewa Stream in Bridge Pā, near Hastings pictured in October and last week. Photo / RNZ
Forest and Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay told RNZ the Karewarewa stream was a "victim of the human activities in that catchment".
"I think it's really illustrative of a wider issue we have with freshwater in New Zealand still."
Hawke's Bay Regional Council chief executive James Palmer said if conditions continue, irrigation could be banned for a time, to help streams come back to life.
Galloway said he hadn't heard of significant numbers of waterways drying up, and being dry in January was "not too bad, it's nothing unusual".
"But if this carries on through well into March or April, that's when we start having problems."
Galloway said last year didn't bring the rain in autumn needed heading into winter.
"It's certainly something we need to keep an eye on," he said adding that farmers need to have trigger points - decision-making deadlines for if rain has or hasn't come over the next couple of months.
"People don't need to panic but you need to have plans in your head."
Galloway added that everyone should be keeping in touch with their neighbours and friends to make sure everyone is going okay, and making use of the Rural Support Trust.
