There are low flows in the Manawatū River.

Palmerston North and Manawatū are drying out at a time when it should be lush, prompting fears of a repeat of last year's scorching start to summer.

The city's last significant rain was a month ago, when 11.4 millimetres fell on September 25.

Just a few drops more had fallen since.

In the city's Turitea water catchment, only 22mm had fallen in 60 days, the lowest for the same period in eight years.

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City council transport and infrastructure manager Robert van Bentum said the dam had stopped overflowing, which was unusual for the time of year, and the city had already used 12 per cent of the water that would normally be stored for summer.

The council had stopped operating its hydro-electricity generation plant to save water.

Last year, the city's main water storage dam at Turitea stopped overflowing in early November, prompting the early introduction of a sprinkler ban, usually not required until January.

The Manawatū River is also at low flows, hovering at a depth of 36 centimetres at the Manawatū Teachers College monitoring station.

That meant the council had to switch on its phosphorus treatment process at the Totara Rd wastewater treatment plant on October 5, and had been running it continuously since.

Out in the countryside, farmers are hoping for rain.

Federated Farmers Manawatū-Rangitīkei president Richard Morrison said a dry spring was always a problem when farmers were hoping for maximum growth for feed to last through the year.

As well as being dry, soil temperatures had stayed low, which was hindering growth.

Farms could do with about 2.5cm of rain a week in the growing season, but most parts of the region had received nothing like that amount, he said.

MURRAY WILSON/STUFF Palmerston North has started using water stored at the Turitea dam for summer.

MetService meteorologist Kyle Lee said a couple of fronts in the forecast could bring the region's dry October back to average.

A front was expected to pass over the region late on Thursday, bringing showers into early Friday.

It was hard to predict how useful the rainfall would be, but indications were that it would not be a great amount.

Another front from the west later on Saturday could turn to rain for western parts of the North Island.

"It looks like it could be pretty wet into Sunday."

Lee said many parts of the country had experienced a drier month than usual, but there was still potential for the month's rainfall tally to return to average.

Van Bentum said city council staff would be monitoring the weather and water levels closely.

Unless the forecast rain eventuated, it would be considering water use restrictions in early November.

He said the city was likely to have the benefit of one or two more bores operating this summer to help even out supply.

However, Horizons Regional Council imposed limits on how much water the city could draw.

"There will be sufficient supply to meet all normal domestic and commercial requirements," van Bentum said.

"However, during dry conditions it is especially important that we consider and manage outdoor water use so water is not wasted."