Rainfall totals for Canterbury hit historic records according to Metservice.

In a 72 hour period between midnight Friday and midnight Monday, Environment Canterbury rain gauge at Mt Somers totaled 540mm – more than nearby Oamaru gets in a typical year, or about the same as notoriously wet Milford Sound gets in an average winter month.

As well as the phenomenal rainfall in Canterbury, several sites around the Nelson ranges saw over 200mm, and some locally heavy falls near Taranaki pushed those gauges over 100mm. The other images show close-ups of these areas.

In the first image 629 rain gauges are shown, which belong to MetService or to third-party owners who have agreed to share the data with Metservice.

Those 629 gauges collectively recorded over 31 metres of rainfall in those 72 hours (31,352mm), averaging 50mm each. Only 1.2% of those stations saw no rain at all. You can find historic data on most towns and cities in New