By Caley Callahan
A healthy dose of wet weather has hit the South Island's east coast providing a short reprieve in an otherwise drought-stricken area of north Canterbury.
MetSevice says the inland high country got the heaviest rainfall with 27mm in the last 60 hours, while Cheviot and Methven received 4mm and 6mm respectively.
Hawarden farmer Dan Hodgen told Newshub while the recent rain is welcome, it doesn't solve the drought problem heading into summer.
"It's certainly going to grow feed and while it's drizzling it's not blowing nor'west, it's not drying out more, so that's all positive," he says.
"We're still riding a knife edge which isn't much fun but we know it's going to get dry in December, January."
MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray says the best chance of rain is for the remainder of the week.
"That's really their best bet for some significant rainfall," she says.
"It's really the long term [the farmers] are a bit more concerned about."
Mr Hodgen is concerned some bores may run dry if there is no heavy rainfall in the near future.
"Rain like this won't fill those bores that well, if we don't get some heavy rain to fill those groundwater reserves up again, there's going to be some difficult decisions for some of the irrigators," he says.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) is predicting a troubled irrigation season with several rivers already at low flows and on restriction, including Ahuriri, Rakaia, Waimakariri, Hurunui, and Rangitata rivers.
Spring-fed streams are also drying up in the Christchurch and Selwyn areas, with surface water irrigation to be limited this summer.
Newshub.
