Rain causes sleepless night

LATEST: A torrential downpour hit the ranges between 8pm and midnight, causing sleepness nights for many rural families in and around Pahiatua as river warnings sounded in the early hours of the morning.

River levels throughout the region again spiked, with many farmers left to wonder if it would be a repeat of Monday's torrential downpour that ravaged the region and turned paddocks into swamps.

One farmer, Kerri Prince, got out of bed periodically last night to keep an eye on the creek that runs through her farm after she received warnings from flood sensors.

''The water levels were as high as the banks and it was almost over flowing. If we had got anymore water, it would've flooded for sure,'' she said.

Metservice reports that the Tararua Ranges experienced about 30mm in a relatively short period, but that the rain was unlikely to have caused problems like Monday's deluge that drenched the region.

''The radar image shows that it cleared towards the top of the Tararua Ranges at about midnight and at about 1am it cleared off the bottom,'' severe weather forcaster Erick Brenstrum said.

He said that while the torrential downpour was significant, farmers would be relieved that it happened over a relatively short timeframe.

''It's still a bit heavy, but the numbers (of rainfall) aren't scary,'' he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News