Tinder dry Taupō
By Chris Marshall
Fire and Emergency New Zealand advisor risk reduction Roger Nelson moves the dial to the extreme end.
Rain over the Auckland Anniversary Weekend may have dampened holiday spirits but it has given some relief to farmers and fire fighters.
Little rain in early January and 18 consecutive days of dry weather up until the evening of January 25, meant Taupō had got “exceedingly dry”, said longtime Taupō weatherman Bevan Choat.
Choat, who has meteorological data for this area covering the last 50 years, said the district was technically approaching drought conditions.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand has moved Taupō into a restricted fire season, meaning a permit was needed for any fire outside.
Roger Nelson, advisor risk reduction, said Fire and Emergency was asking anyone with a previously approved permit to think twice and hold off until the area had received reasonable rain.
The Taupō District Council has also announced level one water restrictions for Taupō, Kinloch, Wairākei and Waitahanui.
Taupō received about 17mm of rain on Sunday, but caution was still advised.
“People really need to take absolute care when they are in the outdoors,” Nelson said. "
“Not just around lighting fires, but around any outdoor activity that may create sparks of any type. We’re talking about grinding, welding, motorbikes in long grass, parking hot vehicles in long grass. Catalytic converters every now and then will have a spurt out the exhaust and that can also cause issues.”
The larger of two grass fires on Te Toke Road earlier in the month involved 19 hectares, said Nelson, who also served as a volunteer firefighter.
“It had a 2.1-kilometre circumference … and we had up to 40 people on it at one stage, seven appliances, four water tankers, three helicopters, two excavators and a bulldozer. A lot of resources out there dealing with an escaped rubbish burn.”
January has also seen grass or scrub fires in Wharewaka, Waitahanui and Spa Park.
As well as the increased risk of fire and concern over potential water shortages in urban areas,
Farmers in the Taupō District will be hoping for more rain to keep the pastures topped up.
Federated Farmers Rotorua-Taupō Provincial President Colin Guyton noted that challenging weather conditions could have a negative impact on the mental health of those in the rural sector.
The area required two reasonably good falls within a two-week period to get things turned around, he said.
“At least we (dairy farmers) are having a good payout so that will help.
“Things are pretty good for us so I’m not going to complain but we have to prepare for these dries. And I think it’s something farmers are pretty good at doing. It’s part of our business, trying to fill those gaps, whatever they may be caused by.”
Summer crops like turnips were one strategy but they could be “hit and miss.”
“I would imagine there would be a few guys getting rid of older cows or cows that are not in calf early.”
The seasons seemed to be getting less predictable, he said, but allied to this was the Central Plateau’s location.
“Being in the middle of the island, El Nino, La Nina tend to affect one side of the island more than the other, but we never know what we’re going to get. If you’re farming at altitude you learn to farm for tough periods because that’s what happens ... The farmers that are prepared for it will coast through and the ones who tend to fly more by the wind might find if they have to buy feed it’s going to get more expensive as it gets drier.”
If there were to be a month long hot, dry spell, ahead it would be horrendous, said Guyton.
“We’ll have to under sow and there’ll be some big costs going forward. It will suck into that good payout and make things tough for farmers and if it’s tough for us it will be tough for the people that rely on farmers for income as well.”
Electricity generation company Mercury which manages the level of Lake Taupō as part of its system of eight hydro-electric power stations on the Waikato River, said it was continuing daily monitoring.
“The lake level is still high in our operating range, but we are mindful of dry conditions,” the company said in a release.
Mercury is required to keep the level between 357.25 to 355.85 metres above sea level (a range of 1.4m).
While this January’s dry has broken, Choat voiced a wary note on the trend ahead.
“While it is not unusual to experience long, dry rainless periods during the summer months, of concern is that they follow what was the second driest year recorded in Taupō, where only October produced above average rainfall.”
And February is known for being hot – Taupō’s driest month on record was February 2022 when only 1.0 mm of rain fell for the entire month.