A close watch is being kept on possible heavy rain in the Waitaki catchment later today as the level of the lower Waitaki River returns to normal after flood flows since the middle of last month.
The MetService issued a "severe weather watch" of heavy rain along the Southern Alps yesterday and again later today. "Significant accumulations of rain" were predicted, especially this afternoon.
Meridian Energy Ltd said yesterday the forecast rain total, at this stage, was not sufficient to warrant concerns in terms of restarting spilling from its Waitaki hydro-electricity lakes.
"However, we are watching it closely," external relations manager Claire Shaw said.
At present, its hydro storage lakes are close to full, Lake Tekapo at 94% and Lake Pukaki at 98%.
Last month, the two lakes were over-full after more than 500mm of rain fell at Mt Cook between May 16 and 18. That forced Meridian to spill water, the flow in the lower Waitaki River reaching 1554cumecs, the highest since 1995.
High flows continued until this week. The river yesterday was as low as 352cumecs, about its normal daily average.
