In Te Aroha we have had more than usual rain this summer, the lawn has NOT stopped growing, but we still need rain. Just had to give my beans a bit of a watering as the soil is very dry.

Hi,

We are dairy farmers at Matamata. Had good rainfall this summer, its been a just in time kinda summer, we have had long hot spells and just as we have started to get worried and feed out, the rain has arrived. But more is needed. Had 75mm at the weekend and within a couple of hours you would have said it hadnt rained. I watched your video with great interest (the best most informative forecast I have ever seen) and I am quite worried about the lack of rain in the coming 2 weeks. I hope we see some action in the tropics soon, another 150mm from an ex tropical cyclone would do very nicely! Overall summer has been good, milk yields higher than last year, we dried off last year 10th April due to severe lack of feed, hope we are able to milk into May this year. Great website, i check in everyday, keep up the good work.

Allen

Hi

We have a skirt of promising looking rainclouds around the horizon but alas clear blue skies overhead. We sat today and looked lovingly at what looked like some lovely rain disappear over Auckland and, as usual, it by passed our water tanks which, as usual, are empty again.

Could the whole of Auckland please go outside and blow the rain our way.

Cheers
Sue

Hi to Phil and the team. We have 20 acres at Wayby just south of Wellsford. Even after 399 mils to date this year the ground is still not over wet due to the water table still being very deficient. We have two 5,000 gal water tanks for the house which in our 7 years here, have not run dry. Stock water from a creek and small dam only let us down during the summer drought of 2010. Had one of my best gardens this summer with almost all veges doing well. Lawns never seem to stop growing even in the worst of drys.
Hope this of help for your survey.

Cheers Steve

Getting little bits or rain here in Takapuna and is very overcasted.

Hia, we are on tank water here in Dairy Flat (Albany) and we have not had to fill our tanks at all. We purchased the house in August though so not sure if it will be like this every year. I do think we have had more rain this summer though? Also we have not had to worry about our small collection of animals as the rain and heat have kept the grass growing well!
Love the site by the way, keep up the good work!