Downpour welcome in Northland

This crash at Pakaraka was one of 18 reported in Northland in 34 hours during last week’s wet weather. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Farmers, gardeners and those who rely on water tanks were grateful for the 48 hours of rain that fell last week, but Northland Rural Support Trust co-ordinator Julie Jonker said more would be needed to consign the drought to history.

The wet spell had taken a lot of pressure off farmers with the fact that it fell over a relatively long period of time enabling the water to soak in.

"The change of weather and that big blocking high moving to the south has allowed hot tropical air to flow through, and that has helped," she added.

Kaitaia dairy farmer and Farmers of New Zealand president Ian Walker agreed that constant light rain had soaked into the ground perfectly, and pastures quickly began turning green, giving dairy farmers who had been running out of supplementary feed hope of completing the milking season.

The Northland Age recorded 75.9mm in the 24 hours to 9am on Thursday, making it the wettest 24 hours since December 14, 2011, followed by 69.4mm to 9am Friday, the wettest two days since April 2009.

The 24-hour record for February is 105.8mm on 2007, and the 87-year average for the month 91.4mm. The wettest February was in 1958 (358mm).

NIWA meteorologist Ben Noll said Kaitaia's rain represented a one-in-five-year event, the torrential 28.6mm that fell between 2am and 3am on Friday being the fifth-highest one-hour fall since that record began in 1962. The soil moisture deficit had largely been eliminated, he said.

Kerikeri received 73.8mm, most of it (59.8mm) falling in the 24 hours to 9am on Thursday.

"What's needed is follow-up rain in the next two to three weeks, because it doesn't take long in this weather to dry things out quickly," Mr Noll added, while an expected wind change from north-east to south-west late Today would reduce humidity a little.

Meanwhile the rain was credited with playing a part in 18 road crashes reported in Northland in 34 hours, five of them in the Bay of Islands/Mid North, including one on SH1 at Pakaraka, where the driver of a Ford Focus lost control on a sweeping bend just south of the junction, directly in front of a police patrol.

The driver and sole occupant was not hurt, Constable Rhys Dempster said.