November was wet, but on annual basis, Hawai'i still dry

While most of the state still has below-average rainfall on an annual basis, as anyone living in Hawai'i knows, November was a pretty wet month almost everywhere.

Is the drought of the middle of the year over? It would appear so, from data supplied by National Weather Service senior hydrologist Kevin Kodama. That, and December continues to be plenty wet over much of the state.

The break began with heavy rains over Kaua'i early in the month, which dumped 8 to 10 inches over parts of O'ahu when it got there, then drenched Moloka'i and Maui. Another system brought heavy rain to the southern Big Island, and a statewide storm pounded all the islands at the end of the month.

Kodama's report for Kaua'i: “While wet conditions pushed a couple of sports into the near normal range, most of the available totals for 2007 through the end of November remain in the below normal range. Mount Wai'ale'ale's 291.17 inches leads all totals statewide and is 77 percent of normal.”

For O'ahu: A number of locations are near normal for the year. “However, many gage totals remain below normal in the range of 50 to 80 percent. The Oahu Forest NWR gage leads all Oahu totals with 162.06 inches (87 percent of normal) and has passed Maui’s West Wailuaiki for third highest in the state behind Mount Wai'ale'ale and Pu'u Kukui.”

For Maui: Most rain gages remain below normal for the year. “The wet conditions of November helped push the Kaunakakai total into the near normal range after being below normal all year. Pu'u Kukui’s 174.43 inches (50 percent of normal) leads all Maui County totals and is second highest in the state behind only Mount Wai'ale'ale.”

Kodama said his data come from a range of sources, including National Weather Service weather station network, the Hydronet automated network, sites run by cooperative observers, and automated stations operated by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S .Geological Survey, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

© 2007 Jan W. TenBruggencate

Table of statewide rainfall data: www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/hydro/pages/data_tbl_11.html