Despite recent heavy downpours, it has been a relatively dry wet season in East Hawaii.
Rainfall since the first of the year has been between 50 and 80 percent of average at various locations around the island, according to National Weather Service forecaster Derek Wroe.
“The bottom line is that for the windward areas of the Big Island, for the most part, rainfall totals this year have been below average,” he said Tuesday in a phone interview from Honolulu.
Rainfall totals for the year, from Jan. 1 through the end of March, were 53 percent of average at Hilo International Airport. The gauge there measured just over 17 inches of rain during the first three months of the year.
Rain totals in Honokaa were right on target, with 31.5 inches collected in the area’s rain gauge, accounting for 100 percent of the three-month average.
Rainfall totals in Pahoa, Mountain View and Glenwood were all below 50 percent, while areas on the north end of the island, including Waimea, Waikoloa and Laupahoehoe, were above 50 percent.
The wettest spot on the island was Kawainui Stream north of Waimea, which measured 46.64 inches through March 31. That was 118 percent of the average rainfall at that spot.
Meanwhile, the driest spot on Hawaii Island was Kaloko-Honokohau, which measured just 1.87 inches of rain through the end of March. That marks 36 percent of the 30-year average for the same time period.
The last couple weeks, rainfall has returned to somewhat normal levels in East Hawaii because of an increase in tradewinds, Wroe said.
“That’s actually normal for this time of year. It’s good to see them (the tradewinds) back,” he said. “These gusty tradewinds are going to produce more rainfall.”
During the 72-hour period from Saturday morning through Monday morning, Hilo airport’s gauge measured just over an inch of rain. Kawainui logged 1.49 inches, Glenwood totaled 1.74, Laupahoehoe saw .92, and Honokaa measured .27 inches.
The most rain on the island during the three-day period was 3.11 inches, measured at the Saddle Road Quarry within the Hilo Watershed Forest Reserve, about 16 miles mauka of the Hilo Bayfront.
Despite the recent downpours, not much more rain is in store for the Big Island in the next week or so, according to the weather service.
“For the rest of the state, we’re keeping an eye on an area of low pressure developing off to the west the next couple days. That could be a rain-maker for Kauai and Oahu, but you folks on the Big Island don’t seem to be getting much more. It’ll be continued easterly trades for you guys, but I don’t think it will be terribly wet for you guys into next week,” Wroe said.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
