Heavy rain hits Hawke's Bay, weather set to clear ahead of Christmas

Ponding on the Marine Parade reserve in Napier after heavy overnight Tuesday-Wednesday rain. Photo / Warren Buckland

Forecasters are predicting Hawke's Bay will soon start drying-out for a fine Christmas after the weather that brought heavy rain to parts of the region over the past few days.

Rainfall of well over 150mm was recorded in four days in some parts of the Bay, and heavy rain on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, resulting in some surface flooding, mainly around parks and reserves and paddocks.

By mid-afternoon Wednesday, 66mm of rain had been reported in the Te Pohue area northwest of Napier since Tuesday morning, 33mm recorded in the Napier CBD since Tuesday morning, 48mm at Bridge Pa, 26mm at Waipukurau, 42mm at Onga Onga, and 27mm at Porangahau.

In Northern Hawke's Bay there had been 35mm at Aniwaniwa in Urewera country and just 17mm at Wairoa.

Forecasts were for some more rain on Thursday but, while near-record rainfalls were expected in some other parts of the country – particularly Canterbury - Hawke's Bay is expected to become drier with no other rain forecast in the week to Christmas, with temperatures increasing back towards the upper 20s.

The rain resulted in some warnings in Hawke's Bay, with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency advising motorists to take care throughout Hawke's Bay and the Gisborne area.

There had been reports of potholes and surface flooding on State Highway 2 in Central Hawke's Bay and warnings of potholes opened-up by the heavy rain.

Unseasonally higher rainfall forced Wairoa District Council staff to extend their consented discharge hours for treated wastewater, according to a statement.

"Steady rain in town meant the ponds were filling up quickly, and to avoid the ponds overflowing and causing additional infrastructure issues we extended our discharge past the 4am cut-off," chief executive officer Kitea Tipuna said.

Rain had left some early surface flooding in parts of Napier after heavy rain in parts overnight, but it mainly receded during the morning.

A slip was also reported in the Devil's Elbow area of SH2 between Napier and Wairoa but was not thought to have caused significant disruption to traffic.