A year ago the nation was stuck in a drought – 12 months on and most places are greener but as we kick off the first day of April many in the North Island are desperate for more rain.

Some farms are drier than they were a year ago during the worst drought in over 50 years.

Rain so far this year has been hit and miss – including ex-cyclone Lusi which saw 200mm fall in one part of the Waikato region but just 3mm for Hamilton.

WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan says the dry end to March will extend into the start of April – but cooler, wetter, weather does appear to be in the longterm forecast.  “We aren’t ready to lock anything in yet but long range models indicate a shift to an increased chance of Tasman Sea lows in mid April”.

Mr Duncan says there is no silver bullet for some of our driest regions, like Manawatu, Waikato, Northland and Auckland, but that two potential rain events in the second and third weeks of April can give some farmers a little hope.

“We expect the rain makers to gradually return, to be honest it’s pretty hard for New Zealand to avoid them as we head into winter, but we need several rain events for the North Island to truly reverse the dry conditions that have been forming in some places there since last spring”.

In WeatherWatch.co.nz’s monthly report to Fonterra on Monday the weather news authority forecast an Autumnal spell of unsettled weather for New Zealand around the middle of April.

– Homepage image / File, Chris Johnson

– WeatherWatch.co.nz