Rain welcome - more wanted

Wairarapa farmers were allowing themselves a small celebration yesterday as rain came down throughout the district for the first time in months. However, much more is needed before it could be called a drought breaker.

Rain arrived with squally showers overnight Sunday and this built to light, but reasonably consistent showers yesterday morning and gathered momentum from midday onwards.

Falls were very inconsistent across the wider district with as much as 25mm being recorded under the Tararua Ranges at Nireaha up until 3pm. Pirinoa had received 16mm, East Taratahi 9mm - the same reading as for the town of Eketahuna.

John Booth, whose sheep, beef and cropping farm at The Cliffs in rural Carterton has been severely affected by the continuing dry weather, said he was "very grateful" for what had fallen and was "encouraging Mother Nature to give us some more".

Mr Booth said soil temperatures remained high, and the warm, gentle rain was soaking in as opposed to heavy rain running off the hard ground.

"This will encourage grass growth and if we can get rain over the period of the next week or 10 days we still have time to get good growth before winter sets in," he said.

At Pirinoa Station Tony Didsbury reported 9mm had fallen overnight Sunday and this had been topped up to just over 16mm by lunchtime yesterday.

Mr Didsbury said the rain had been at a nice, steady pace.

In Eketahuna Ian Woodcock, who lives in town and takes regular rain readings, said 9mm had fallen by 3pm but the showers looked to be on-going.

For the first time in weeks he had taken an umbrella with him as he walked into town.

One of the guaranteed spin-offs from the rain is that rural people gathering drinking and household water off roofs have had a last minute reprieve from either having to top up water tanks by buying in supplies or pumping in creek or river water.

River levels throughout the district had dropped away dramatically before the rain came, restricting irrigation draw-off.

Although it takes time for the rivers to respond to rain falling in the various catchments it is expected most waterways will freshen at the very least.

The MetService said although there was still some rain and heavy showers left in what is termed a "complex trough," the system was weakening as it pushed further north.

A cool southerly was expected to break out over the whole of the North Island today but the next high is waiting in the wings.

Meteorologist John Law said this was expected to spread across the entire country by the end of the week, bringing a return to mostly dry weather.