Think it’s dry? Now it’s February

The long spell of hot, dry weather might have been great for Northland’s holiday-makers and tourism sector, but with no significant rain on the horizon, increasingly parched conditions have prompted a Northland Regional Council warning to conserve water.

Colin Dall, the council’s regulatory services manager, said last week that east coast rain gauges from Doubtless Bay to Whanga¯rei had recorded just 5mm to 10mm rainfall last month, while a gauge at Glenbervie had recorded 6.5mm, the driest January since records began in 1947.

(In Kaitaia the Northland Age recorded 9.2mm, making it the driest January since 2013. The average in Kaitaia is 87.1mm).

Mr Dall said the Bay of Islands in particular now needed 250mm to 300mm of steady rain, equivalent to several months’ worth, to make up the deficit from some very dry months through last winter and autumn.

“Unfortunately, not only has Northland already had significantly less summer rain than usual, but the latest four-week forecast from the MetService indicates we’re unlikely to receive much rain in February either,” he said.

“The MetService’s forecast for the next month indicates that while we may see some modest rain towards this weekend, forecasters say it doesn’t look enough to keep the wolf from the door for very long, and no significant rain is expected.”

The tropics are also predicted to remain ‘quiet’ for the coming fortnight, and although they should get more active from about mid-February, at this tropical rainfall from any weather systems forming there was expected to stay away from New Zealand.

Mr Dall says district councils had already begun imposing water restrictions in some parts of the region, and the regional council had already contacted some of the more vulnerable water take consent holders and water users, urging them to conserve water where possible, if they were not already doing so.

As expected, the council was already recording low flows in many of Northland’s rivers, particularly in and around the Bay of Islands.

“Unless there’s significant unexpected rain soon, we will very shortly be in a position where we will need to be looking at formal water rationing and/or water shortage directions as tools for managing water takes in dry catchments,” he added.

Several hundred people and organisations had formal consents to take water, ranging from private individuals, for relatively small amounts, through to major users taking hundreds of thousands of litres daily.

“Some of our biggest users are district councils, taking water for public supply, and farmers irrigating pasture,” he said, but hundreds of others who were taking relatively small amounts of water, without the need for a resource consent, also needed to save water where possible, and be prepared for potential shortages.

Given the dry weather to date, and the prospect of more this month, people would generally be wise to take whatever water conservation steps they could now to avoid possible tougher formal restrictions later.

“We’re urging everyone to ensure they’re not taking or using more water than they need to,” Mr Dall said.

“By making a little bit of an extra effort now, and if necessary planning ahead to secure tankered water supplies, they’ll potentially be helping spare themselves a much worse headache later.”

(Kaitaia received 160.8mm of rain in January last year, followed by 181mm in February).

■ District council restrictions can be found at www.bewaterwise.org.nz