The weather has been sunny and rainless in Hilo lately, with hardly a cloud to obscure a glorious view of snow-capped Maunakea, and for the second consecutive year, the Big Island is experiencing an unseasonably dry January.
In 2022, Hilo International Airport received only 1.2 inches of rainfall. That was the driest January since 2010 and just 15% of the average January precipitation of 7.86 inches.
If the current weather continues, this month could be even drier than January of last year. As of 8 a.m. Friday, the airport has received just 0.04 inches of rain in 2023.
“It’s been unusually dry statewide,” Derek Wroe, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Honolulu said Friday. “We had that one system come through, I think it was on the 19th of December. That was the most significant event we’ve had all winter long. But that was more of an interruption, and most of it didn’t make it to the Hilo side.”
Hilo did receive some rain during that storm, but not much. In the 48 hours ending on Dec. 20, the Hilo airport received 0.72 inches of rain, and none for the remainder of 2022.
West Hawaii, which has also been bone-dry lately, received the brunt of the December storm Wroe referred to. In the same 48-hour period, typically arid Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole had 2.63 inches of rain drench its tarmac.
The totals for other West Hawaii spots during that same period were: Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, 5.17 inches; Honaunau, 5.21 inches; Waiaha, 5.25 inches; Kealakekua, 5.3 inches; and Waikoloa, 4.15 inches.
“Usually, there’s undulations or buckles in the jet stream. … at highers levels in the atmosphere,” Wroe said while explaining the dry spell. “But what’s been happening in the last several weeks is that it’s been flowing straight west (to) east from Asia, straight across the Pacific. And what that does is it sort of shunted all of the weather-making systems, or most of them to the north of us.”
In a drought statement dated Thursday, Kevin Kodama, the NWS’ service hydrologist in Honolulu, wrote, “The December storm did not produce much rain over the east-facing slopes of the island, and some farmers from Laupahoehoe to Volcano reported dry conditions and low catchment supplies.”
While farmers and residents on catchment are hoping for rain, the current weather has been a boon to commercial water haulers.
The Tribune-Herald called numerous water haulers, receiving mostly busy signals and no live person to answer the phone. The recorded voicemail message for K&T Water Haulers in Hawaiian Paradise Park said, in part, “We have a high volume of calls for water delivery coming in.”
The seven-day forecast on the weather service’s website lists a 20% to 40% chance of showers for the Hilo airport in the next few days, but that appears to be a hedged bet.
“It’s been a pattern that’s been more conducive to drier weather for us,” Wroe said. “I don’t see any significant rain on the horizon.
“It’s hard to get any drier than it’s been for the past several days. There could be a chance for some rain (today), but that would just be typical trade-wind weather, nothing really significant.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.