It has been very dry in Northland since the beginning of 2013. The map below is from the Northland Regional Council site and depicts the rainfall figures for January 2013, which as indicated, have been exceptionally low. View more Rainfall Maps for Northland.
According to NIWA there were record dry conditions in a number of regions in NZ in January 2013, with less than 10mm of rain falling across Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.
It has also been uncharacteristically dry in February 2013 in Northland. What is apparent is that rain clouds are still forming over the region, but it appears that as a result of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering, very little rain is falling. The following photos depict this happening. These were taken throughout February the 12th, 2013 and show what appear to be rain clouds over Whangarei. It was cloudy for most of the day and aerosols were visible behind the clouds, as a number of the photos show.
At about 7pm rain fell, however it amounted to very little. I took the last photo shown after the rain had finished falling over Woodhill, Whangarei. As can be seen, the rain was not substantial, it merely dampened the surface.
This is identical to what is happening in Palmerston North.
Thank-you for letting us know that Danielle. As a side note, I find it quite interesting that a website called “Northland Inc” claims the following, which is not true:
“Droughts are also common in Northland during the summer months with records showing that parts of the region, on average, have a drought of economic significance every three years.” Refer: http://www.northlandinc.co.nz/about-your-place
Droughts are not common – if they were, fruit growers and farmers would not have established here. Do the owners of the site want people unfamiliar with the region to think droughts are common – and if so, for what purpose?
Droughts are common in Northland, From a 1986 paper published in the Proceedings of in the NZ Grassland Association, quoting a paper published in 1978.
There are references in that paper to other articles dating back to 1969 which further outline the recurrence of drought conditions in Northland on a regular basis.
Click to access nzgrassland_publication_1137.pdf
When we asked farmers about droughts in Northland at the Northland Field Days, Feb 21-23, 2013. They replied with statements like these: ‘I remember the bad drought in 1945’, or ‘There was a very bad drought in the 1940s.’
We intereacted with approximately 200 people over the 3 days, where we had a Geoengineering stand to educate the public about the technology used to induce drought. I did not hear one person say that in their opinion drought was common in Northland. Someone said “It depends on what you mean by common….” No one said there were droughts every 3 years that effected them significantly.
I interviewed an elderly Northland lady named Kath Gillespie, who is with Rural Women NZ and she networks with farmers. She called the conditions, including the drought of 2010, the wet weather of 2011 and the current drought conditions as quote: “extreme.”
The rain fall maps from the Northland Regional Council:
http://www.nrc.govt.nz/Environment/River-and-rainfall-data/Rainfall-maps/