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Source: ONE News -
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Summer sunshine appears to have come to a screeching halt with rain bucketing down across many parts of the country.
The MetService issued a severe weather warning today for Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Westland and Nelson, forecasting between 50 and 140mm of rain for Bay of Plenty through to Monday morning, with significant rain also for Mt Taranaki, Westland and Nelson.
By late afternoon, heavy rain had eased in Taranaki and Nelson.
Northland, where drought was officially declared on December 8, had received more than 200mm of rain in the last week and farmers are delighted.
Northland farmer Bruce Paton said he'd done a bit of a rain dance a few days earlier.
Federated Farmers' Northland president Matt Long agrees the rain is a great Christmas present.
For many farmers around the country, things were getting desperate as the soil got drier and drier.
"We'd run out of grass. Cows were on the decline very quickly and we were looking at alternative supplements," Paton said.
But after today's downpour, the improvement is immediately noticeable in Ruakaka, where Paton says it's like liquid gold.
"We've had 110mls now but it's been spread over five days. You can see it's really soaked in and you can see the farm's just changed colour and the grass is growing," said Paton.
"My eight year old said to me the other day 'Dad can you hear that? That's money on the roof,'" he said.
Farmers will continue to feel the financial impacts of dry weather over the last few months. The rain will mean about three weeks' grass growth, but more rain is needed for growth beyond that.
"In terms of our area, I think you'd say the drought is over, in the short term anyway keeping in mind that we're just into summer," Long said.
But MetService has more good news for those farmers, they say more rain is on the way.
"This frontal rain band, which is going across New Zealand today, is going to bring a period of significant rain to many areas. Another period of rain (is due) tomorrow for many North Island areas," Heath Gullery, Metservice forecaster.
Significant rain had also reached Waikato and Ruapehu, where drought was declared last week.
Not all good news
Many North Island regions including Auckland have been lashed by rain all day.
The weather in Auckland forced the cancellation of a T20 HRV Cup match between Auckland and Wellington that was supposed to be played at Colin Maiden Park. Auckland will share their points with Wellington after the heavy rain ended any hopes of play.
The weather also caused some problems on the roads, with a crash causing the closure of some northbound lanes on State Highway One near the Beaver Road off ramp south of Auckland.
Later in the afternoon, around 5pm, there was a head-on collision on SH1 in Dome Valley , north of Auckland. One person has died.
The road is blocked and diversions are in place and police advised there would be delays for those heading north.
Police say people need to be wary of the road conditions.
Check out the latest weather information on our weather page.
Do you have any pictures of bad weather in your region? Email them to onlinenews@tvnz.co.nz
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