Soils in the Tauranga region are extremely dry for this time of year and need sustained rain over several weeks to return to normal.

That is the warning coming from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, who have suggested that without rain, and if current conditions persist, then drought may be imminent.

'Drought may be imminent” according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

This means rain, and plenty of it, is what farmers, orchardists and gardeners need but it's probably not what holiday makers are wishing for.

NIWA's weekly advisory service 'Hotspot Watch” says soils continue to be much drier than normal for much of the eastern and far southern sections of the North Island.

Locations in and around Tauranga to near East Cape have severely to extremely dry soils for this time of year and abnormally dry soils are also found south along to Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Wellington and southern Manawatu-Wanganui regions.

There is some evidence of deteriorating conditions, in terms of coverage and dryness, over the eastern Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions with slight improvement over the Wairarapa region.

Soil moisture deficit is the amount of water needed to bring the soil moisture content back to field capacity, which is the maximum amount of water the soil can hold.

Soil moisture anomaly is the difference between the historical normal soil moisture deficit (or surplus) for a given time of year and actual soil moisture deficits.

Farmers and growers will be hoping that international predictions of a 75 per cent chance for El Nino weather patterns developing over the December 2014 – February 2015 period are wrong.

During El Nino, New Zealand tends to experience stronger or more frequent winds from the west in summer, typically leading to drought in east coast areas and more rain in the west.

NIWA is reporting that some – but importantly not all – atmospheric indicators show patterns consistent with the development of a weak El Nino.