For the first time in weeks, there are no active alerts restricting water takes from Otago rivers as flows have risen above minimum - although only just in the case of the Taieri River.
Otago Regional Council chief executive Peter Bodeker said it was a difficult situation on the upper Taieri River as flows were sitting above the minimum, but there was still not much water in the river system.
The rainfall had replenished the storage capacity of the Taieri River, rather than filling up the river itself, which was a good thing, he said.
As a result, the council had decided to continue with the water shortage direction stopping four farmers above Waipiata from irrigating.
''We are reviewing the situation every day - in fact, today we have reviewed it twice.''
With 23mm of rain in Dunedin, 12mm in Oamaru and 12.2mm Alexandra on Monday, on top of rain last week, coastal areas were greening up again, as were areas north of Dunedin.
''We're not back to spring, but what it has given us is a respite for a period of time. How long nobody knows.''
Niwa's hot-spot report for the week said the rain had given Otago a ''welcome reprieve'', with soil moisture levels at near normal to just below normal.
''Rainfall over Otago over the past week has seen this hot spot region recover significantly in terms of soil moisture, but will need to continue to be monitored.''
The rain on Monday was enough to raise the Pomahaka River headwaters to a first flood alert but flows dropped back to 10.7cumecs yesterday afternoon.
Otago regional councillors will discuss the low river flows at their meeting today. Niwa meteorologist Chris Brandolino said good weather was forecast for the next few days and showers were possible in the following week to 10 days.
The climate outlook for February to April indicated above-average temperatures for inland and coastal Otago and near normal rainfall, he said.
