to all of us: a Taranaki with clean waterways, clean air and actively managed pest species. Vote for me and I will work tirelessly for the benefit of the Taranaki Region. Three questions for Susan: What are the biggest issues facing the TRC and the region?
The biggest issue facing Taranaki's environment is climate warming. Anyone who doubts the effects of climate warming has clearly not been in Taranaki this winter - weeks of unrelenting rain peppered with torrential rain. The impact on
The wet weather we had in August continued last month with an average of 169.7mm – or 9% more than usual. There was 46% more than usual at Tawhiti at Duffys while Motunui M39 at Weston W3 had 41% less than normal. Year-to-date rainfall is lowest at Waitotara at Hawken Rd with 30% less rainfall than normal, Pohokura Saddle has had the highest year-to-date rainfall with 1% more than normal, on average there has been 14% less than normal across all rain gauges. Mean river flows for September were
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Provisional data onlyRegional Council
Taranaki
Total rainfall (mm)to date
xxx yy%
KEY
% of average ‘year to date’ rainfall
xxx yy %
NEW
PLYMOUTH
H WERAĀ
ELTHAM
Kaka Rd
P teaā
K tareō
Motunui
Brooklands
Inglewood
Pohokura
SaddleNorth Egmont
Stratford
Huinga
Cape Egmont
Dawson Falls
Upper Glenn Rd
Whareroa
Rimunui
Jan-Dec 2220 Rainfall
11 %22,409
1 %242,747
1 %271,999
1 %221,931
1 %222,846
1 72 %2,504
1
2015 with 15.192m
recorded as stage height at Riminui station, in the middle of the Waitotara
catchment. This compared with 13.5m at the same site recorded in 2004 and 10.8 in
July 2006.This was the highest water level recorded since the site was installed in
1993. Riminui recorded a total rainfall of 307.5mm (226% of normal) for the month of
June, with 174 mm of that total falling over the 19-20 June period.
Despite the high levels of rain and river flow, the peak flood levels in the
owns the venue through the Taranaki Stadium Trust, said contractors had pulled out all the stops to get the roof done and dusted but the winter weather has meant the construction crew had been unable to complete this part of the project safely. “The team has worked very hard to get the roof installed in time for this season’s games but unfortunately the weather has not played ball. The project team had allowed for 25 rain days in the programme and the number of rain delay days to the project has
across all rain gauges. Mean river flows for August were 17.6% lower than typical values, low flows were 7.9% greater, and high flows 27.5% greater than typical values. The maximum river flow recorded was 698.2 m3/sec at Waitara at Bertrand Rd, on 27 August after heavy rainfall at the month. Mean river (non-mountain) water temperatures were 10°C, an average of 0.1°C cooler than long-term August values. The average air temperature for the region (excluding Te Maunga sites) was 10.8°C, which is 0.8°C
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
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.
public do? While NPDC works on bringing the dam up to regulation, it is recommended that residents in affected properties prepare a flood response plan for their family or staff members if a flood alert is raised, so that they know what to do in an emergency. Helpful information is available online here: getready.govt.nz/prepared(external link). All members of the public should also not approach the dam during periods of heavy rain and be careful downstream of the dam.
August was exceptionally wet, with many rain-gauges collecting more than twice the typical rain for the month. The average was 176.6% of the long-term average, and ranged from 80% at Rimunui Station to 387% at Dawson Falls. Year to date rainfall is sitting between 113% (Manganui at SH3 Midhirst) and 211% (Dawson Falls) with an average of 141.7% of normal. Cape Egmont remains at around 211% of normal to date and has already received 95% of a typical year’s rain in eight months. Mean river flows