Declaring a drought is all it takes to get some rain around here, it would seem.
Dunedin was officially in meteorological drought yesterday, and although we have just received our first significant rain since early January, we are not "out of the woods" yet, Niwa says.
The city has joined a small portion of southeastern Otago which was officially declared in meteorological drought by Niwa last week, and other persistent hot spots around the southern regions still have the potential to develop into drought.
"It uses rainfall, soil moisture and evapotranspiration, which is the rate at which water is leaving the ground and going into the atmosphere above.
"We’ve seen very low rainfall in these areas for a couple of months running now.
"We’ve seen some pretty hot temperatures, which increases the evapotranspiration rates.
"Also the low rainfall means a pretty dramatic reduction in soil moisture levels.
"So we’re ticking all those boxes and that has culminated now into meteorological drought."
It had become extremely dry in Dunedin and southeast Otago this month.
The entire Otago-Southland region was in much need of rain, Mr Noll said.
Today’s forecasted rain would be enough to give the ground a good soaking, but the areas were not "out of the woods" yet.
"There is a factor to consider — the grounds might be quite hard because of the lack of rain, and you might have some of that water just run off rather than being absorbed by the ground.
"This rain will ease the meteorological drought, but these areas will remain, at least, in the ‘very dry’ category.
"There may still be some impacts on the ground due to the longstanding dryness."
The Queenstown Lakes District Council, Central Otago District Council, Dunedin City Council and Clutha District Council all have urban community water restrictions in place.
Otago Regional Council regulatory acting general manager Joanna Gilroy said the forecast for the next few weeks was for Otago’s weather to be dryer than in previous years, and if it continued it would require "a difficult water shortage direction" from the council.
As of February 21, Otago waterways recording low flows were the Pomahaka (at Burkes Ford), the Shag (at Craig Rd), the Taieri (at Outram), the Waitahuna (at Tweeds) and the Waiwera (at Maws).
Other monitoring locations were also close to reaching low-flow situations, when more consent holders might need to cease taking water, she said.
"Rivers throughout Otago are running low and we need people to conserve water and use it efficiently."
A total fire ban and prohibition on fireworks are also now in place for most of Otago, meaning all previously granted fire permits are suspended, and most of Southland is a restricted fire area.
