Last month was one of the driest on record for the Bay of Plenty with less than 55mm of rain falling, but March looks set to bring more sunshine.

Niwa national climate summary shows the Bay region recorded record low rainfall with 15 per cent less rainfall last month than the average for February.

MetService shows sunshine every day for the next nine days.

Highs or anticyclones kept rain-bearing weather systems such as lows and fronts away, resulting in an extremely dry and sunny February for many regions of the country.

Sunshine totals were well above normal - between 110 and 124 per cent of the normal February.

Tauranga experienced its second sunniest February since records started with 575 hours of sunshine, Whakatane had 608 hours, Lake Tekapo had 606 hours and New Plymouth experienced 634 hours of sunshine.

Less than half (50 per cent) of normal February rainfall was generally observed across the remainder of the country.

NIWA says as at March 1, extreme soil moisture deficit (more than 130mm of deficit) was evident in the Bay of Plenty as well as Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Taupo, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, between Wanganui and Palmerston North, parts of Marlborough, Canterbury, and Central Otago.

'Significant soil moisture deficit (more than 110 mm of deficit) was generally observed elsewhere in the North Island, as well as in the Waimea Plains, and across eastern Otago.

'An adverse event due to drought was declared in Northland on February 27.”

The dominance of high pressures looks set to continue with the MetService showing sunshine every day in the 10 day forecast for Tauranga.

Tauranga is set to get average highs of 25 degress with light winds and dry conditions.