Lake Wakatipu water level continues to drop

Otago Regional Council says the water level in Lake Wakatipu is continuing to drop despite more rain in the catchment yesterday.

The lake threatened to burst its banks and flood Queenstown's central business district last week after days of heavy rain.

But after peaking on Saturday, the water level has been steadily dropping and council officials are hoping the danger might be over.

Council's environment engineering and natural hazard director Gavin Palmer said yesterday that it would be another week or so before the lake fell below the first warning level, provided there was no significant rainfall in the headwaters in the meantime.

"Wind remains the single greatest risk for the next few days (blowing the water ashore) and neither the council nor any of the business operators are removing any flood protection measures, other than to enable access to the shops and cafe."

Fine weather and light winds are forecast until tomorrow, but rain and stronger winds could arrive on Thursday and Friday.

The MetService said a trough of low pressure in the Tasman Sea was expected to bring heavy rain to southern Fiordland on Thursday night, and spread to northern Fiordland and Westland on Friday.

Forecasters said it was possible that rainfall could hit levels in the ranges that would spark warnings.

But they advised people to keep up to date with weather forecasts.

- NZPA