flank, causing fires in the native bush which swept 3km northwards across the western
slopes of the Pouakai Range (Druce, 1970, cited in Neall, 2003). 150 years later a pumice
lapilli fall and pyroclastic flows covered Maori villages, inferred from the discovery of Maori
ovens (umu) beneath the deposits. In 1755 A.D. small hot avalanches occurred from
eruptions at Taranaki. Recent evidence from Platz (2007) suggests that the most recent
eruption was between 1839 and 1866 A.D., and potentially in
Ordinary Council Agenda August 2024
The year began with Taranaki's second driest January ever, with none of our monitored sites getting even a third of their normal rainfall for the month. Totals ranged from 8% to 29% of normal, with an average of 17%, and our monitored sites recorded rain only on three to seven days during the month. Stratford recorded just 13.5mm, its lowest January total since records began in 1998. Our monitored sites on Taranaki Maunga recorded 17% to 23% of their normal Janary rainfall, with rain on five to
relation to best practice irrigation onto high and low risk soils.
1.6 Application Depth
The volume of water applied during irrigation is referred to as the application depth. Farmers will make
reference to the amount of rain in their rain gauge in mm. For example, there was 4 mm of rainfall
yesterday. This relates to the formula 1mm of rain falling on 1 ha equals 10,000 litres. Using the example of
4mm of rainfall, this would equate to 40,000 litres of rain falling on each ha of land.
rivers including all NOF criteria.
Attribute
criteria
Total no.
sites
Attribute grade
A B C D E
% >540 22 2 0 2 9 9
% >260 22 3 1 0 7 11
Median 22 4 N/A N/A 7 11
Q95 22 2 1 0 19 N/A
Overall grade 22 2 0 1 7 12
The assessment shows that only three out of the 22 monitoring sites meet the minimum standard (band C;
based on the national swimmability target), while the remaining 19 sites fall within band D (7 sites), or band
E (12 sites). The two
There were plenty of April showers last month with nearly 775mm of rain at the North Egmont Visitors Centre and 574.5mm at Dawson Falls. Rainfall was on average 101.8% of the long-term average, and ranged from 65% at Taungatara at Eltham Rd and Oeo u/s Awatuna Wetland, to 192% at Matarawa at Matarawa Valley. Year to date rainfall is sitting between 103% (Mangati at SH3) and 206% (Matarawa at Matarawa Valley) with an average of 139.7% of normal. Mean river flows were 133.8% of typical values,
overall E. coli concentrations in rivers including all NOF criteria.
Attribute
criteria
Total no.
sites
Attribute grade
A B C D E
% >540 22 2 0 2 9 9
% >260 22 3 1 0 7 11
Median 22 4 N/A N/A 7 11
Q95 22 2 1 0 19 N/A
Overall grade 22 2 0 1 7 12
The assessment shows that only three out of the 22 monitoring sites meet the minimum standard (band C;
based on the national swimmability target), while the remaining 19 sites fall within
page
Doc. No: 2747617
TARANAKI REGIONAL COUNCIL MONTHLY RAINFALL AND RIVER REPORT FOR March 2021
Provisional Data Only
Note: some sites record a number of parameters
Table 1: Rainfall at 27 sites throughout the region
Station Sub-region
Monthly Year to Date
Records Began Number of rain
days (>0.5mm)
Total Monthly
Rainfall (mm)
% of Monthly
Normal (%)
Total to date
(mm)
% of Normal for
year to date
% of average full
calendar year
Nth
The rain stayed away from Taranaki Maunga in December with just 60% of the long-term average recorded at North Egmont. It was a different story in the Eastern Hill Country with 194% at Mangaehu at Bridge. Across the region, rainfall was 109% of the long-term average. Total rainfall for 2022 ranged from 112% (Kotare at OSullivans) to 158% (Kapoaiaia at Lighthouse) with an average of 128.6% of normal. Mean river flows for December were close to typical December averages at around +19.6% while
for municipal and rural water supply.
Did you ever wonder why many rivers have
water in them when it hasn’t rained for days or
weeks, there’s no snow melting, and the
ground is dry? The rivers are being filled up by
water coming from out of the ground in the
form of springs and seepages which brings us
on to the topic of groundwater.
Groundwater facts
Groundwater is water which occurs in
formations below the earth’s surface. In
Taranaki we use 44,022m3 per day but
recharge