The rain may be great for the farmers but it's meant an anxious wait for cricket fans planning to attend Napier's first men's Twenty20 international today.
According to national weather forecasting agency MetService, "occasional rain" was expected throughout the morning and into the early afternoon, although the conditions were expected to clear with a turn to a nor'wester in the evening.
Little more than 5mm of rain was being forecast in the 24 hours before the game between New Zealand's Black Caps and Bangladesh starts at McLean Park at 7pm, although more rain was possible during the 20 overs-a-side international expected to take about three hours.
Duty meteorologist Kyle Lee said in Wellington: "I think we're going for the more optimistic outlook. Hopefully it will be clear during the evening."
Yesterday's patchy rain, amid southerly conditions moving up the east coast amounted to little and the weather is expected to clear for temperatures of 25C and above later in the week, for the Hawke's Bay Summer Cycling Festival, starting on tomorrow.