The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Hawaii’s wet season will produce “near-normal to above-average rainfall.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Hawaii’s wet season will produce “near-normal to above-average rainfall.”
But another nugget in NOAA’s announcement Thursday focuses on the 2016 dry season — which was far wetter than normal.
The dry season, from May through September, “was the second-wettest dry season in the last 30 years,” said Kevin Kodama, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu (2015 was the wettest).
That was great news for farmers.
Merlie Tadeo, a vendor at the farmers market on Mamo Street in Hilo, said she was pleased that the dry season was wetter than normal.
“The vegetables need water, too,” she said while working at her stand, which includes a wide variety of produce, including green beans, onions and tomatoes. Tadeo said her husband does most of the planting, while she does the selling. But she noted that rain is OK, whether it’s the dry season or wet.
Kodama said the wet season, October through April, will be affected by a La Nina, which tends to include weather-changing cooler ocean temperatures.
“One’s developing right now. But it may not last too long,” Kodama said. He noted that during past La Nina events, Hawaii tended to get near-average rainfall.
If La Nina fizzles out, it will leave Hawaii “kind of in this fuzzy or boundary area” between heavier and lighter rainfall than normal.
Although extra rain might be good for agriculture on Hawaii Island, Kodama said it’s important to keep in mind that rainstorms can cause flooding.
“There’s always a risk of that when you get into the wet season,” he said.
You should be particularly cautious if a road is covered in water, he emphasized.
It just takes a couple of feet of fast-flowing water across a road to sweep an automobile into a stream or flood zone(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxuZisPS6fA). If a road is covered, the water might have washed away the roadway altogether and left a deep hole.
“If there’s no alternate route, you just have to wait it out,” Kodama said. “Don’t risk crossing if the road is covered.”
He also had words of advice for hikers.
Never try to cross a flooded stream. Streams rise fast in Hawaii. But water levels also drop rapidly.
“You might be wet and miserable for a while — but at least you’ll survive,” Kodama said.