A visitor landing in Hilo and viewing the lush greenery might not realize it, but much of the windward Big Island had historically low August rainfall totals.
“I was there this past weekend. It was generally green,” Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said Thursday. “But in terms of the rainfall, record lows.
“Now, granted, my records only go back 30 or so years, but it’s been dry.”
According to Kodama, record low August rainfall totals were recorded at Glenwood, Honokaa, Laupahoehoe, Mountain View, Piihonua and Waiakea Uka.
With 5.15 inches, Hilo International Airport experienced a wetter August than any of the aforementioned locations. But even that is less than half the 11.3 inches of rain the airport usually tallies for the month.
And in South Kohala, the Kamuela and Kamuela Upper, with 1.44 inches and 2.22 inches, recorded their lowest August totals since 2008 and 2011, respectively.
In his monthly drought statement issued Thursday, Kodama said the low rainfall totals have “started to degrade pastures even along the mostly wetter windward slopes.”
“Water levels in stock ponds in the Hamakua area were dropping,” the statement reads. “The large Leilani brush fire that started in the Pohakuloa region of the island was finally contained in mid-August after burning close to 20,000 acres over several days. Earlier this summer, ranchers operating along the lower slopes of the Ka‘u District reported very poor pasture conditions. Satellite-based vegetation health data indicated degraded conditions across most of the South Kohala District and in the North Kona District to the north of Hualalai volcano.
“The satellite data also showed poor conditions on the slopes of Maunakea along the Keanakolu Road.”
On the leeward side of the island, summer is usually the rainy season for the Kona coffee belt. That said, all four official gauges were below August norms. Kainaliu had the most rainfall, at 3.91 inches, 67% of its average August rainfall. Kealakekua tallied 3.51 inches, Waiaha received 3.45 inches and Honaunau recorded 3.51 inches.
Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole had what constitutes a wet August, but that means 1.37 inches of rain fell on its normally bone-dry tarmac last month, more than 2.5 times its August norm.
Kaupulehu received 1.55 inches, 180% of its average August rainfall of 0.86 inches. And Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park measured 1.65 inches, 99% of its usual August rainfall.
The official gauge receiving the least rainfall last month was at Waikoloa, with just 0.09 inches, about a quarter of its August norm.
According to Kodama, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated all four of the state’s counties as primary natural disaster areas due to drought.
The designation allows funding to be used for emergency loans and compensation for grazing losses.
Asked if there is any relief in sight with the rainy season due to start next month, Kodama replied, “I don’t think so.”
“From the beginning of the dry season, we’ve been talking about drier-than-normal conditions,” he said. “The projections are that it’s going to continue, at least through the start of the wet season. The short-term projection is not really good.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
