In the context of a water supply crisis the drought goes unmentioned

Gisborne on the North Island's east coast has come into the headlines because of severe water shortages caused by the leak in a water main.
But it has been badly effected by drought as recently as last year.
But no one is going to remind you of that – so what is the real situation?

Gisborne has only 24 hours water supply left after leak in main pipeline

TVNZ,

14 February, 2019

Gisborne District Council says it has only about 24 hours of water supply in its reservoir after a leak in the main water supply pipeline.

The council earlier today imposed a total ban on all outdoor water use, meaning no car washing, lawn or garden watering or filling swimming pools.

Contractors are now onsite at Makaraka in Gisborne digging to find the leak.

They needed to identify all the underground services before they could begin to dig, the council said.

"We won't know the cause of the leak until they reach the pipe," the council said.

"Water is still available to all households and commercial properties in the city, but drawing from reservoir storage which have enough for approximately 24 hours.

"We urge people to stop using water outdoors for non-essential use."

The council said it doesn't know how long the restriction will be in effect until it knows what's required to fix the leak.

The council says it will continue to update the public as more information becomes available.

Hawke's Bay farmers are starting to get nervous about the predicted dry summer, but say it is too early to make decisions about destocking.

CHB farmer and former President of Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay Will Foley said farmers were at a tipping point.

"If we get a bit more rain it will keep us going but if we don't we are going to dry out pretty quickly.

"October was a particularly dry month, which is what got us into this position really, we are drier than normal for this time of year."

This is from the beginning of summer.
How come we don't hear about this?

And from the beginning of last year.

Hawke'sBay farmers at tipping point, waiting for rain

After a period of calm, dry weather for much of the country, in which century old records for dryness were toppled, the furious storm from the north seemed to come out of the blue.

What may at first seem like atmospheric whiplash was actually a case of cause and effect – and may be a taste of things to come.

The sub-tropical low roaming down the country, which formed earlier in the week near Queensland in Australia, is the most significant storm to hit New Zealand in many months.

For context here is a map with Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island.

Here are figures for the soil moisture anomaly. It is a traditionally dry area so this does not necessarily reflect the extent of the drought.

However, this does. Compare the situation last year (middle) with this year (right).