Weather

Falls very localised over 36 hours, and a return to dry conditions forecast for most in coming week.

Phil Duncan airs a climatological storm that has been brewing for years, generating much hot air and little relief.

It’s been keeping things pretty dry, says Phil Duncan, but there’s limited wet weather on the horizon.

Top of the South Rural Support Trust fielding more calls than usual.

The direction it reaches us from has a lot to do with the impact, says Phil Duncan.

Government extends medium-scale adverse event classification to cover more regions.

All eyes are on new water storage plans as growers in South Canterbury lose irrigation rights 10 weeks early.

Cooler temperatures could negate any benefits of late rain in drought-hit areas.

Farming leader urges civil defence planning for natural disasters to make use of local knowledge and expertise.

Unlike many other nations, when NZ starts to have drought we need to worry about two things, says Phil Duncan.

Ambit widens of medium-scale adverse event classification.

Traditionally, more chaos comes into our weather patterns once we’re past the equinox.

South Canterbury hasn’t had decent rain since December.

Declaration will provide support, tax breaks for struggling farmers.

Stock water is short and rivers increasingly are under pressure.

We aim to forecast the weather most likely to happen, not to forecast the weather most people want says Phil Duncan.

Probability of such a flood now expressed as a ‘one-in-550-year’ Annual Recurrence Interval.

Beamish family guided by research on their WhanaWhana Valley spread.

‘The hills are that awful grey colour they go when it’s really dry,’ says Rural Communities Minister.

Flood recovery is motivating changes in farming systems, Allan Barber finds.

Conditions are now ‘incredibly dry’ in parts of New Zealand, says WeatherWatch’s Phil Duncan.

 Rainfall from June-January just 45% of the long-term average.

Farmers warned to exercise extreme care, monitoring machines for trash build-up or anything that could cause sparks.

A proper El Niño pattern has arrived, confounding the skeptics, says WeatherWatch’s Phil Duncan.

New Zealanders fall hard for autumn every year, writes Phil Duncan.

Richard Rennie looks back over the past year of devastation, recovery and community strength.

But ‘if a war should ever break out, I would take an army of Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay farmers’, says a local farm adviser.

A community leader calls for thinking beyond costly roadways to ensure the future of the region.

Like so many farmers hammered by Cyclone Gabrielle last February, Sam and wife Gemma have made progress in the recovery – but there’s still a very long way to go.

Communications, roading, electricity – all these things were taken out by Gabrielle. How do we prevent that happening again when the next ‘big one’ comes along?

It helps to think of the weather in the month ahead as a canvas, says Phil Duncan. Now imagine there’s a brush with blue paint...

Climate drivers like El Ninõ will influence the weather but there are also other factors in play in our tiny island nation.

Gains will help with losses sustained in last year’s Auckland floods.

Rapid drying comes after a growthy spring, which has created a heavy fuel load.

Summer is being pretty good to us, Phil Duncan says.

Forecaster gives current event six or seven out of 10 on seriousness scale.