Rain relief, but more needed

As a cold front swept up the country yesterday dumping rain, farmers were left wanting more to relieve their parched soils.

While the weather system brought heavy rain to some mountainous regions, much of the arid east coast only received a fraction of what was needed.

Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers president Jim Galloway said while farmers in Wairoa and further north enjoyed some decent fallfalls, rain elsewhere was insufficient.

Farmers near the coast were used to summer dry conditions and were holding steady, but it was the farms under the Ruahine Range that usually had rain this time of year who were suffering, Galloway said. What they needed was substantial rain on a reasonably regular basis to let pastures recover before winter.

‘‘What we don’t want is a lot of rain and then another month of dry, because any new growth we get will just shrivel up,’’ he said.

Metservice meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said the cold front was being quickly replaced by a dominant high pressure pattern bringing back ‘‘mild and clear conditions’’, but a low pressure system forming in the Tasman Sea could bring rain.

‘‘Broadly speaking, as we head into early next week there are indications for another frontal feature moving its way across the central part of the country.’’

Thunderstorms were set to bring heavy localised rain in the ranges on the east coast inland of Gisborne.

Some weather stations in the Tararua Range recorded more than 20mm of rain early yesterday, enough to refresh some rivers in Wairarapa.

Doolin said colder frontal systems become more frequent in autumn. ‘‘It will be a bit of change for people, particularly in the North Island, who have been enjoying a warm, dry and rather humid summer.’’

Wellington people would have felt a distinct change with a warm night suddenly dropping in temperature, Doolin said.

Wairarapa farmer William Beetham said the east coast of the lower North Island was barely touched by rain and their situation remained the same.

It was important that farmers who were feeling the pressure sought help, Beetham said.

Federated Farmers Wairarapa president William Beetham said it was important farmers who were feeling under pressure sought appropriate help.

Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway said the farmers who usually had summer rain were the ones hurting from this year’s dry conditions.