Severe drought now covers more than half the state and more than 85% of the Big Island and Maui.
That’s according to a drought information statement released Wednesday by Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
“Pasture conditions remain very poor in the leeward portions of the state,” Kodama said, adding that livestock producers “are continuing to haul water and supplement food with bales of grass and mineral tubs due to insufficient forage.
“Some producers have reported shortages of feed from vendors,” he added. “Invasive species have been increasingly encroaching onto farm lands due to poor forage conditions elsewhere.”
Severe drought is designated as D2 in NWS literature and on its maps. And leeward Maui County and localized areas of the Big Island are in extreme drought, designated as D3 by the weather service.
The worst conditions on Hawaii Island were reported along the leeward slopes of Mauna Kea and Ka‘u’s lower slopes.
Tammy Ortiz, the owner of K&T Water Hauling in Keaau, said that her company and other water haulers are very busy.
Ortiz said she has one 4,000-gallon truck and is “backlogged probably about two to three days.”
According to Ortiz, while the drought means increased business, customers on water catchment can do themselves a favor by calling before their tanks run dry.
“A lot of them are not calling until they actually run out,” Ortiz said. “Then it becomes crazy.
“If they were proactive about checking their catchment and ordering accordingly, then it would be a lot easier,” she added.
Ortiz said there are only two county water spigots for commercial water haulers in East Hawaii, one in Keaau and one in Pahoa.
“That is the main problem,” she noted. “We have 20-plus water trucks and two fill stations, and everybody is back-to-back in line to fill.
“That causes a hardship, because it slows us down. We’ve been asking the Department of Water (Supply) for years to open up more spigots. We have a lot of trucks, but everybody’s congested at the fill station waiting in line. I pull up to the spigot, and there’s sometimes five or six trucks in the line. And you’re waiting 20, 25, sometimes 30 minutes per truck.”
Most of the Big Island is in what would normally be the rainy season. However, El Nino conditions and a low-elevation, high-pressure ridge that was pushed southward — directly over the state — by strong low-pressure systems in the North Pacific, caused October’s weather to appear more like mid-winter conditions, as opposed to what would be expected in early fall.
The normally wet windward slopes were especially dry last month, with most of the gauge sites posting monthly rainfall totals of less than 20% of average.
The gauge at Hilo International Airport recorded its driest October on record, with just 1.36 inches of rain, 13% of its average of 10.24 inches for the month.
Kodama said that’s “particularly notable, because the data archive for this site goes back to 1949.”
Records for the lowest October rainfall also were broken at Glenwood, with 3 inches; Pahoa, with 1.13 inches; Piihonua, with 1.81 inches; and Waiakea Uka, with 2.04 inches.
In addition, the Hakalau, Kahua Ranch, Kaʻupulehu, Keaumo and Mauna Loa Observatory gauges had their lowest October totals in more than a decade. Mauna Loa had no rain at all.
Much of West Hawaii, which is perpetually parched under optimal conditions, was even more arid than usual.
Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole recorded just 0.1 inch of rain, 11% of its October norm, with Waikoloa reporting the same rainfall total, 22% of its average for October.
Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park tallied 0.11 inches, or 8% of its usual October, and Puuanahulu received 0.14 inches, which is 6% of its October norm.
”Brush fires continue to be a significant threat to public safety due to the ongoing dry conditions,” Kodama noted.
The Kona coffee belt, which experiences its wet season in the summer and is currently in its dry season, is also drier than normal, but not as severely affected as other leeward locales.
Of its four gauges, Kainaliu received the most rain, with 3.51 inches, 82% of its norm. Waiaha measured 3.12 inches, 91% of its usual October, Honaunau reported 2.91 inches, 57% of its norm, and Kealakekua had 2.38 inches, 55% of its October average.
The rare spots receiving essentially normal rainfall were both in Ka‘u. Kapapala Ranch and Pahala both tallied 5.25 inches, which is 103% of average October rainfall for the former and 99% for the latter.
Kapapala Ranch had the highest daily total of 1.01 inches on Oct. 23.
With forecasters predicting the drought to run into the winter, Ortiz again urged those on water catchment to be proactive and call haulers before the their tanks are empty.
“They could call and say, ‘OK, we’ve got about six days before we really run into a problem,”’ she said. “Order it. Get on the list. And if it rains and it fills up or you’ve got a sufficient amount of water, give us a call and say, ‘We no longer need you.’
“Then it opens things up for the next person who calls.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.