Weather update #2 15:30

While the rising of Lakes Whakatipu and Wanaka hit first public awareness alarm levels this morning, they should be peaking tomorrow morning.

ORC’s General Manager Science and Resilience Tom Dyer says that this morning MetService has now cancelled its orange heavy rain warning for the Otago headwaters and most rivers have peaked and are falling.

In addition, there is also an orange strong wind warning in place is affecting affect most of Otago.  

“While the rain has largely passed both Lake Whakatipu and Lake Wanaka are still expected to rise over the next 24hours,” Mr Dyer says.

He cautioned that while many rivers were now receding around the Queenstown Lakes area, further rain forecast for later today could prompt some rivers to rise again.

The Dart River peaked on late this morning at a flow of 2080 m3/s.  This is the second-highest flow in the monitoring record for the ‘Dart at the Hillocks’ site, since monitoring commenced in June 1996.

He urged people to be aware there had been reports of road closures, surface flooding, landslips and power lines down, and to consider their travel plans.

Around Queenstown there was potential for surface flooding and localised ponding in low-lying areas of Beach St, Rees St, Marine Parade, Church St, Earl St, as water entered through the stormwater system, with reports of precautionary sandbagging underway.

Low lying parts of Kingston township were expected to flood, while in Glenorchy the outlook remained unchanged from yesterday. The Glenorchy lagoon is predicted to overtop the Glenorchy floodbank, and flooding of the Northwest part of the township was still likely later this evening.

For much of Otago, severe gale northwesterlies were expected during the day with damaging gusts of 130 km/h in exposed places, up until about 4pm.

Mr Dyer says while the Clutha River flow at Balclutha will remain elevated for several days, although there are currently no concerns about ORC’s flood protection schemes in Alexandra and Balclutha in handling the expected flows downstream.

ORC is continuing to closely monitor the river flows and lake levels and working with Queenstown Lakes District Council and Emergency Management Otago to ensure businesses in low-lying areas are aware and prepared.

Link to ORC’s Environmental Data Portal: www.orc.govt.nz/edportal 

Direct link to data portal lake levels: www.orc.govt.nz/lakelevels 

Link to Queenstown Lakes District Council: www.qldc.govt.nz/october-weather-event

For roading updates visit NZTA: www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/highway-conditions/otago