North-Island-drought-worst-in-history

[wayno]

looks like nz might be developing the odd desert of their own....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming ... in-history

[Picaro]

A professional associate just returned from there, and I was a bit taken aback to hear about this.
I guess I have a common idea that NZ is the southern Ireland....perpetually green and drought proof.
Is Sandra contributing some relief down there yet ?

[wayno]

a bit of rain coming this weekend but not enough to relieve the drought.
the entire north island is now a drought zone, wellington has a week and a half of water left.
west coast of the south island hasnt had decent rain for 12 weeks, that must be a record.
eastern side of the country often goes into drought later in summer, but this is worse than anything on record. the rain will come back for autumn , question is when.

[stepbystep]

Pretty much reflects what's been happening in Tasmania this year.

[wayno]

isnt it normal for tasmania? certainly was dry when i was there, wasnt expecting it to look so parched... no end of rain in nz up to the start of jan, then nothing... we were lucky we had a wet spring and early summer or most town water supplies would have had it by now...

[stepbystep]

Not this summer, hottest on record.