KAILUA-KONA — Rain and snowfall continue to replenish Lake Waiau, keeping the alpine lake that sits some 13,000 feet above sea level atop Mauna Kea nearly full or full for more than two years. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — Rain and snowfall
KAILUA-KONA — Rain and snowfall continue to replenish Lake Waiau, keeping the alpine lake that sits some 13,000 feet above sea level atop Mauna Kea nearly full or full for more than two years.
In fall 2013, Waiau — normally 1.7 acres — was shrinking fast because a dry spell lasting several years rendered much of the lake bed dry, leaving just a puddle in its center.
Normally 100 yards wide, the U.S. Geological Survey reported the lake was just 10 yards wide and 9 inches deep on Sept. 26, 2013. By December, the situation worsened, with the maximum depth at 5 inches.
Researchers Matthias Leopold and Norbert Schorghofer in a June 2016 research paper about the subsurface architecture (geologic formations that hold water), said 2013 marked the first time the lake disappeared from within Puuwaiau cinder cone.
When full, the lake has a maximum depth of about 3 meters, or 118 inches, according to photographic monitoring and data of Waiau kept by state agencies since 2012.
A 2015 report by the USGS based on data from 1885-2010 found the lake’s surface area normally fluctuates between 5,000 and 7,000 square meters (1.23 and 1.72 acres). In late 2013, that number dwindled to 114 square meters, far worse than amid drought in 1978, when Waiau, which means “swirling water of a current” in Hawaiian, dropped 4,100 square meters.
Today, Lake Waiau is nearly full, as it has been since fall 2014, indicative of normal precipitation in Puuwaiau near Mauna Kea’s summit, according to information from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve and observations by the Office of Mauna Kea Management provided by DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward.
“There were also good winter rains and snow at the end of last, and beginning of this year,” Ward said. Photos provided by Ward showed a good amount of snowfall, including the lake appearing to have developed ice on its surface in December.
Attempts to reach National Weather Service hydrologist Kevin Kodama for additional details about precipitation in the area were unsuccessful as of press time Thursday. In an outlook issued in October, he expected near to above average rainfall through spring 2017 because of a weak La Nina event in the equatorial Pacific. That forecast also noted the 2015 and 2016 dry seasons were the wettest in 30 years.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
