Otago Regional Council chief executive Peter Bodeker was cautiously optimistic.
''It's not the end of the drought, but I think you could say it's the beginning of the recovery.''
Dunedin received about 18mm of rain over the weekend. Balclutha saw more, receiving 24mm, while Ranfurly got 7mm, Queenstown 4mm, Oamaru 2mm, and Dunedin Airport 8mm.
''We're seeing that all of our rivers have risen over the weekend, with nothing that's even close to being under the minimum flow at this stage,'' Mr Bodeker said.
''Irrigators will be able to extract according to rosters.''
North Otago Federated Farmers' vice-president Lyndon Strong said while it was not enough to break the drought, the weekend and earlier rain had helped winter crops, which were ''starting to look OK''.
MetService meteorologist John Law said the rainfall was ''useful'', but not unusual for this time of year.
''The drought is what's been more unusual,'' he said.
''It's useful to get [the water] into the ground, but it's been quite sporadic. And it's still quite dry.''
Most of Otago had been hovering near drought conditions for about a month when a drought was officially declared in early February.
Farmer Peter Hore said rainfall had been varied in the Maniototo district and some areas had missed out altogether.
In Puketoi, farmer and Maniototo Irrigation Company chairman Geoff Crutchley said the rain had ''freshened things up a bit''.
A lot of seed had been planted and if ''refreshers'' of rain continued, it could be ''quite a good autumn''.
Mr Bodeker was similarly hopeful.
''This is the best situation we've had since early January, really.''
- Carla Green
