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Warmer, more settled weather should give rain-soaked parts of the country a chance to dry out following a weekend of heavy rainfalls and flooding in northern regions, MetService says.
At the weekend, a low pressure system brought heavy rain and thunderstorms to northern parts of the country causing surface flooding and powercuts in some areas.
Meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said temperatures across the country would return to "more summer like" levels this week.
"A nice summery and warm week ahead. Temperatures in the low to mid 20s for most of the country - even the high 20s and possibly in the 30s - by the end of the week and that's particularly for eastern parts of the country," Makgabutlane said.
Makgabutlane said a ridge of high pressure would keep conditions stable - with partly cloudy skies - for much of the week although a front could bring some rain to the lower South Island as the week progressed.
"Midweek we do have a front that passes the lower part of the South Island, so some rain expected down there, and then later on this week we could see a picking up in the winds as well," Makgabutlane said.
She said the low pressure system responsible for much of the rain over the weekend was moving away to the northeast of the country and the summery conditions should give some of the worst affected parts of the country time to dry out.
"This week in the eastern North Island - especially Hawke's Bay and Tai Rāwhiti /Gisborne - the first part of the week we will see much drier conditions. We will still have the odd shower moving through but hopefully nothing as heavy as what we saw over the weekend," Makgabutlane said.
She said the end of the week would see a new weather system bringing an increase in wind and rain to the South Island.
"At this point it does like there could be a bit of rain on the way especially for the South Island and then eventually reaching the North Island early next week.
"So - for this week - we enjoy the warm and summery temperatures," Makgabutlane said.
Ūawa deputy Civil Defence officer Nori Parata said farmers near Tolaga Bay would be working to assess any stock losses and she was aware some animals had ended up trapped in fencing and in the Hikuwai River as a result of flooding.
Parata said the area had faired relatively well as the direction of the weather system had limited the weather's impact on the levels of the river.
She said nearly 40 people were still forced to take shelter in the Tolaga Bay Area School's gymnasium on Saturday night - the majority being campers from low lying parts of the nearby Tolaga Bay Top 10 Camp.
Parata said the number of evacuees from the camp could have been higher but rising waters cut of the route between the camp and school.
"We were very pleased the camp operators took action when they did - around 8.30pm - while it was still light. If they had waited a couple of hours it would have been a very different situation. It would have been drama, the rain was torrential," Parata said.
Parata said the she was grateful to local volunteers who sprang into action to set up mattresses and bedding and prepare the kitchen at the school for evacuees to use.
"They are a well oiled machine and they work well together. We had TV, we had packs of cards, there was a jovial atmosphere. When we gave them access to the Wi-Fi the teenagers all cheered.
"We've had so many adverse weather events over the last five years so the Civil Defence team is pretty used to handling these sorts of events."
She said State Highway 35 was reopened to traffic ahead of 9am on Sunday morning and evacuees were able to leave the gymnasium later that day.
Meanwhile, provincial president of Federated Farmers for Gisborne and Wairoa, Charlie Reynolds, said he was aware some farmers had been hit hard by the weather while others would have welcomed the rain.
He said the rain over the New Year break and last weekend had been the first significant rainfall in the area since October.
"We were gearing up with MPI [Ministry for Primary Industries] to declare a drought. A lot of people were getting pretty worried.
"The first lot of rain - just before New Year's Eve - just soaked into the ground which was brilliant. This second lot has filled the dams and tanks. It's one of those mixed bags - some people get hammered some people get saved," Reynolds said.
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