Dunedin's driest December on record has resulted in a busy new year for water haulage companies, while council staff continue to monitor water levels as holidaymakers return.
• Thousands of fish dying in drying waterways
Niwa has confirmed the city had its driest December since records began at the Musselburgh site in 1918, with 9mm recorded last month, compared with an average of 81mm.
"That is not a bad record," climate scientist Dr Andrew Tait told the Otago Daily Times.
The city recorded the fourth-driest southern site in December, after Clyde (7mm), Gore (8mm) and Manapouri (8mm).
Dr Tait said Southland and Otago were the driest areas in the country last month, and contrasted with a wetter December for northern regions, which included the Nelson-Marlborough region.
"There is a real dichotomy in the climate over the last month between north and south."
In the past few weeks, water deliveries had taken off with a "hiss and a roar". Up to six tankerloads a day had been delivered to those relying on tank water, Foote Haulage transport division dispatcher John Mason said.
George Terry, of Cargill Contracting, said he was delivering up to seven 9000-litre loads a day.
The two days after Boxing Day were his busiest.
Dunedin City Council business support leader Narelle Barbour said city water levels remained good.
Council staff monitored water on a daily basis, and would reassess levels again next week when thousands of holidaymakers returned to the city.
"We are quite well off ... I'm not saying in the next week there would be any [water restrictions] either, but we will have to look at it again when everyone gets back."
Consultant hydrologist and Raineffects director David Stewart, of Dunedin, said the city was in the grip of one of its driest summers in recent years.
Mr Stewart said if rain did not fall over the next month, he would not be surprised if restrictions were put in place. and those relying on substantial rain to fill water tanks would be out of luck.
"I don't see substantial rain coming. This is the weather pattern that was predicted last year, but we ended up having a wet La Nina."
Dunedin City Council Civil Defence and Rural Fires manager Neil Brown said the dry conditions had not reached the stage permits would be overturned or a fire ban imposed.
"It does not matter what time of the year, you need to exercise caution; and that is even more so when things are drying out."
In contrast, a fire ban will apply across the Queenstown Lakes District from midnight tomorrow night, the Queenstown Lakes District Council announced yesterday.
A total fire ban for all of Southland and parts of the Clutha District covered by the Southern Rural Fire Authority is in place from 8am today.
December has been the driest month on record for most of Southland, with as little as 3% of the historic rainfall average falling in some parts.
