MetService issued a severe weather watch yesterday, warning a band of heavy rain associated with a moist northwest front was likely to become slow-moving over Otago from last night to this morning.
A heavy-rain warning was also in force for the headwaters of Otago and Mackenzie Basin through to today.
The Otago Regional Council also issued a warning that the rain was expected to lift Lakes Wanaka and Wakatipu beyond their already high levels and increase river flows in the Clutha catchment, but it did not expect flooding in Queenstown, Wanaka or Glenorchy.
However, it warned low-lying areas along the foreshores might be affected by surface water, and the high lake levels combined with wind could cause large wave heights in some areas.
Yesterday afternoon, the southern lakes and Clutha River dropped slightly as the heavy rain had not hit east of the divide, although Cascade Hut, west of Lake Wanaka, had recorded about 26mm by late yesterday afternoon, with 60mm to 80mm expected overnight.
MetService forecaster Allister Gorman said Otago was expected to get the heavy rain in two dollops, with the Alexandra and Ranfurly areas predicted to get about 30mm to 40mm, about half of what fell during last week's event.
No significant rainfall was expected for Dunedin.
''As we've experienced in the last few events, the rainfall dropped off rapidly the further from the divide.''
As a result, the rainfall was not expected to reach warning levels, although it would still be significant rainfall for areas that usually did not get much, he said.
The Clutha River at Balclutha recorded 1123.318cumecs at 4.30pm yesterday, just short of its 1140m first flood warning and down from its 1500m peak on Wednesday last week.
At 4pm yesterday, Lake Wakatipu recorded 310.643m, just below its first flood warning of 310.800m, a level it reached between Wednesday and Friday last week.
Lake Wanaka recorded 278.770m at 4pm, under its first flood warning of 279.5m and down from its peak of 279.3m on Wednesday last week.
The Otago Regional Council and Queenstown Lakes District Council would keep a close watch on the situation and issue ''ample warning'' to retailers if the situation changed, it said.
Environment Canterbury had also issued a warning to holidaymakers and farmers in the Waitaki Lakes area after 66mm of rain fell in the area from Saturday to 3.30pm yesterday and the possibility of another 150mm being added to the water-logged catchment.
Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau were full, which led to spills down the Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau Rivers, it said.
As a result of high outflow from the upper catchment, lake levels at Benmore, Aviemore and Waitaki were high.
A discharge of 1600-1700cumecs from Lake Waitaki into the Lower Waitaki River was occurring.
