“March is supposed to be one of the wettest months of the year, for the windward side, anyway. And it wasn’t that.”
Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, noted that March rainfall totals were well below their monthly norms for almost all official rain gauges on the Big Island.
The two exceptions were Waikii, with 3.64 inches for the month, 107% of its usual March total, and Waiaha in the Kona coffee belt, at 3.98 inches, or 103% of its norm for the month. And Ahumoa, in the saddle area near Waikii, registered 2.54 inches, 91% of its March average.
“The main Hawaiian Islands have had mostly dry weather following the rainy conditions in late January. As a result, drought has once again increased in coverage and severity in many areas of the state,” the weather service’s online Drought Monitor noted.
In fact, most of Hawaii Island — including Hilo, Puna, Hamakua and most of North and South Kohala — is in moderate drought. Three smaller areas, along a portion of the North Kohala coastline, in the upper Saddle area and along the Ka‘u coast, including South Point, are in extreme drought. The North and South Kona coastal areas are just a bit less parched, and are listed as “abnormally dry” on the monitor.
“It’s been a weird wet season for sure,” Kodama said. “And the (computer forecast) models didn’t pick up on it, whatever was going on, because they’ve been really insistent upon projecting wetter than normal conditions. And it’s just been anything but.”
On the windward side, Hilo International Airport recorded 7.54 inches of rainfall, 59% of its normal March total. Mountain View registered 12.48 inches, or 69% of average, and Glenwood reported 15.86 inches, almost 10 inches less than an average March.
With the dry season set to start in May — except over the Kona slopes, including the coffee belt, where summer is the wet season — Kodama described the rainfall last month as “really inconsistent.”
“On the windward side, some of the rainfall numbers are in double digits. And it keeps things green enough, but it’s still not what you’re used to. And I don’t know what kind of long-term effects that has,” he said. “Kona side will be getting into their rainy season, and that’ll help them, but areas outside of there not looking real good.”
While Waiaha received its normal March rainfall, the other three official Kona coffee belt gauges have been underworked. Honaunau, with 2.15 inches, was the wettest, with 53% of its average. Kainaliu and Kealakekua were unseasonably dry, even for their dry season, with 1.21 and 1.62 inches, respectively, well below have their March averages.
“I’ve been getting reports from ranchers up in Hamakua and down by South Point,” Kodama said. “They’re saying their pastures are kind of dried out and the stream flows are low, well below normal. And so it’s not your usual March.”
South Point totaled 0.70 inches for March, just 20% of normal, and Kohala Ranch was even drier, with 0.47 inches, 46% of its average.
Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport in Keahole, which boasts perhaps the driest tarmac this side of Arizona, was even more arid than usual, with 0.44 inches, or 45% of its March norm. And it wasn’t much better nearby at Kaupulehu and Kaloko-Honokohau, with 0.64 and 0.81 inches, respectively.
As might be expected, it was March madness for the island’s water haulers, as rain catchment wasn’t getting the job done for many who are not on the county water system.
“We already cannot keep up. Ocean View is dry beyond belief,” said Beverly Medeiros of JB Water Hauling, which delivers islandwide. “I will say that before checking calls in the morning at about 8 o’clock, if I don’t have at least 20 calls from Ocean View, I don’t know what to say.
“We are at full capacity, and we just purchased new trucks to bring in from California — and they’re all sitting at Oakland pier. We’re just waiting for them to get here.”
Medeiros, whose trucks fill at the Keonepoko Fill Station standpipe just outside Pahoa, has been trying to convince the county to open hydrants at other locations so the trucks don’t have to return to Pahoa to refill, adding time and a higher fuel bill to each delivery and causing higher delivery prices.
“I’m still islandwide, but there’s still an issue with access to the water,” she said. “Because I’ve got to tell people it’s $500 to $600 a delivery, and people can’t afford that.
“We had a community meeting in Keaau with the mayor and all his staff, and I voiced my concerns. We’ll see where it goes. Because if we don’t have access, we cannot help. Plain and simple.”
Kodama said there’s not much relief on the horizon, at least in the short term.
“Hopefully, things will get better as more persistent trade winds, more normal trade winds come in, and then we’ll get rainfall on the windward side,” he said. “But it’s not good for the leeward side outside of Kona. South Kohala, Ka‘u district — their chances of seeing significant rainfall heading into the dry season is less and less.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
