The Weather

[maud gonne]

As a new punatic, I am wondering if the weather the past month or two is typical of winter, or rainier than usual? All the times I visited before buying (Jan, March, May, June) it rained torrentially at night but only lightly and intermittently during the days. And there were dry days and sunshine. I guess I wasn't expecting such wet days. It's too wet to even mow or get out and chop back the jungle.

[Kelena]

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you I have had your experience as well, as have many of my mainland friends. That's how Puna gets you. You go, and every single day is a sunny day, and it might rain at night. Then you buy a house. Then it rains like hell!

[Vicki B]

I have lived in HPP 6 years + 1 week. It has been unusually wet lately. It has happened before. Some times the last rain you see is on New Years eve, then as the months go by and the catchment runs low you will be begging for rain! We have ElNina in the ocean and this winter has been predicted to be wetter than normal. Aloha, Vicki

vickiboe@aol.com

[Carey]

March of 2006 it rained for a month (one of my friends recounted that it was really 40 days...) day and night.... Even south Kau had flooding a few times that month...
The weather here is not totally predicatable, (averaged, it mainly rains at night, but any given week or month can be totally way off average...November & December of 2005 were drought times...everything around Puna was browning & catchments were nearing empty - then came March!)
I have heard many old timers say they are glad for the rain & blessed when the sun shines.

[janeadams]

It is neither the worst, nor the best, of times...

Having long been fascinated by weather, and being nursery folks, we've recorded the rainfall daily since we've been here (10 of 2004). We are missing 3 months of data due to weather station failure in mid 2005, but other than that, we've got it. We're at 1060' elevation above Pahoa.

On a monthly basis, rainfall has ranged from a low of 2.45 (May, 2005) to a high of 37.6 (March 2006). Looking across the grid, individual months can be really wet one year, and not the next, though August and September tend to show the greatest consistency at 10 - 13" each of the years.

I like how Carey characterized it in a positive framework. We were all hoping for rain last spring after about 6 weeks of draught, and now are looking for a few nice dry days to. Currently, the ground is as saturated as I've seen it. We're not quite at the biblical rain levels, but the last day of unrecordable rain was on December 1st. We're at 25.26" for the month so far. It's been a good time to spend time in the greenhouse, to visit friends, and to take care of some of those pesky indoor tasks that have been long neglected!

Jane

[Hotzcatz]

Well, it IS rainy season! Some seasons it rains more than others. Awhile back didn't Hilo get over 300" of rain one year? Hmm, it was either 310" or 210" but 210" doesn't quite seem wet enough to faze Hilo side much. Guess if I really wanted to know it could be looked up.

Happy Winter Solstice, we should start getting a bit more daylight at least, if not sunny weather.

[mella l]

Aloha Maud,
I was on island from the 3rd thru the 13, rain rain. More rain in these 10 days than on all of my 8 previous trips added together. Have visited for lengthly periods in September, December, April and June, never so much rain during the daylight hours!

Carey just love this saying "I have heard many old timers say they are glad for the rain & blessed when the sun shines". Wish I were there to help wrap the packages, I love doing that, not the shopping part but the wrapping!


mella l

[james weatherford]

Aloha Jane,

What kind of weather station?

We have (with the indispensable assistance of our son) just gotten our Oregon station operating.



James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[frankiestapleton]

Now you know why we're Punatics!

Living in a rainforest environment, which is what the windward side of these islands are, we get lots of ... you know...precipitation. Back during a similar spell in the 1980s, the Chamber of Commerce issued buttons saying "What rain?"

Maud, there are years when what you're experiencing happens. The El Nino/La Nina cycles usually get the blame, whether it's drought or drowning. We've had so much El Nino the past decade or so that people have forgotten the downside La Nina.

The weather here is NEVER predictable, IMHO. Just think how much snow it would have made... And turn loose the need to mow or chop back the jungle for now.

To help you adjust your expectations and avoid frustration, understand that this can go on for a year. Carey's got the right idea.





Edited by - frankiestapleton on 12/24/2007 07:18:00

[janeadams]

James,

The weather station that went defunct was a very expensive Davis Instruments one with a remote console and PC link-up. It completely corroded, and destroyed batteries right and left after a short few months here. We'd used it happily for 3 years in Maui, and it did all the really whizzy things. Loved it, but can't handle the increased humidity here, I guess.

At this time, we have a self-emptying rain guage with a small remote console here in the house. It was about $80 through Garden Supply catalog. We have added an indoor-outdoor thermometer with Min/Max recording capability.

Unfortunately, our flying pig weather vane seems immoblie, so can give no good readings on wind.

Weather watching is such an interesting thing!

Jane