Water squeeze remains despite rain

Hamilton had its second wettest January - but the city council is still concerned about a water shortage

Niwa's National Climate Summary for January shows it was exceptionally wet in the east of the North Island and parts of the Waikato but this was mainly due to the heavy rainfall from January 27-31.

The most significant extreme weather event to hit the country so far in 2010 was the heavy rainfall on the final day of the month. Hamilton and Whatawhata had their third-highest totals that day, drenched with 61 millimetres and 78mm respectively.

But the downpour has not changed the council's position on water restrictions in the city. Hamilton City Council water manager Tim Harty said water consumption in the city was "high and creeping up steadily".

"We certainly won't be looking at coming back from alert level one to alert level two – quite the contrary at the moment," Mr Harty said.

Last weekend's activities indicated consumption was strongly linked to outdoor activities because 25 million litres less was used on Sunday when it was wet compared to Saturday, when it was hot and dry.

Sprinkler rules allowing their use on alternate days has been in place in the city since January and the council warned last week it may have have to introduce a complete ban on sprinklers and restrictions on non-essential uses like window and car washing and limits on watering sports fields, golf courses and garden centres if consumption continued to rise.

Niwa climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said the rainfall figures for January were slightly deceptive and made it look like the Waikato was "hammered" in January, when it really just had a bad end to the month.

Throughout the month Hamilton got 192mm of rain, 239 per cent of its typical total and the second-highest January since records began in 1935.

Matamata also got caught in the deluge with 138mm, nearly twice its average. It also recorded its highest one-day rain total of 85mm on January 31.

Nationally, January was an unsettled month, being wet, slightly cool, and extremely cloudy, with lower pressures than normal over the country.

Of the six main centres, Tauranga was the warmest and sunniest, Hamilton the wettest, Dunedin the coolest, and Christchurch the driest.

The freak downpours didn't affect Waikato's temperature. The national average temperature was 16.7 degrees Celsius – just 0.4C below the long-term January average.

And Hamilton's average of 18.3C and 233 hours of sunshine was normal.

February to April rainfall totals are likely to be normal or below normal in the North Island and temperatures average or below average, according to Niwa.

- © Fairfax NZ News