As the climate changes we expect the region to experience more intense and frequent droughts.
The dry risk indicator is intended to empower and support farmers to make decisions early and inform planning.
The tool gathers data on rainfall, soil temperature, soil moisture, and potential evapotranspiration together from Hawke's Bay Regional Council's 50 rainfall sites and climate stations around the region.
This tool is not intended to supplement weather forecasts. Go to MetService or NIWA for weather forecasts.
Note: Turn on location settings on your computer/device to show data at your location.
As the climate changes we expect the region to experience more intense and frequent droughts.
The dry risk indicator is intended to empower and support farmers to make decisions early and inform planning.
The tool gathers data on rainfall, soil temperature, soil moisture, and potential evapotranspiration together from Hawke's Bay Regional Council's 50 rainfall sites and climate stations around the region.
This tool is not intended to supplement weather forecasts. Go to MetService or NIWA for weather forecasts.
Note: Turn on location settings on your computer/device to show data at your location.
The black line on the gauge indicates the status of conditions in the area of interest. The areas are based on the region's main catchments or a combination of catchments. These are:
The status is determined by a scoring system that considers the number of sites area-wide with consecutive months of below normal rainfall (i.e. <80% of the long term average), the numbers of climate sites with soil moisture levels below median levels and the number of sites with below average rainfall accumulations. It doesn't include PET accumulations in the scoring.
The scoring is weighted heavily to the months of below normal rainfall. It largely determines in which sector the status line lies, while soil moisture and rainfall accumulations determine how far it extends into a sector.
Each sector of the gauge has a value equal to one so the greatest total that can be scored is three.
Monthly rainfall
Soil Moisture
Rainfall Accumulation
An example is a worst case scenario: three or more consecutive months of below normal rainfall (2 points), most soil moisture sites in the lowest 10th percentile (0.6 points) and most sites with rainfall accumulations for the current hydrological year in the lowest 10th percentile (0.4 points). Summing up the points gives 2 + 0.6 + 0.4 = 3.
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Thank you to Hawke's Bay Regional Council climate scientist Dr Kathleen Kozyniak for designing the prototype for this dry risk indicator, and to WebShed director Lee Tong for developing it as a web app.
Thank you to the following organisations for their support and contribution: