National Weather Service Honolulu HI

1145 am HST Sat Apr 1 2006

 

...Six weeks of excessive rainfall in Hawaii with some rainfall records set...

 

Since mid February the upper atmospheric pattern across the pacific has been locked in place with a series of upper level storm systems forming just to the north and west of Hawaii. This has put Hawaii in the moist and unstable area in relationship to these storms... resulting in round after round of rains and thunderstorms across the State.

 

Hardest hit has been Kauai and to a lesser extent Oahu and southeast portions of the big island...although flooding and severe weather have also impacted Maui and lanai. Several long term monthly records on Kauai have already been broken...with even an all time record for Lihue. Records at Lihue only go back to 1950. Even on portions of windward Oahu...a couple of monthly rainfall records have already been established for locations with records that go back to the early 20th century. March rainfall is generally 3 to 10 times the normal monthly amount at many of the wetter locations across the State.

 

In terms of rainfall...records for the wettest month ever were broken at Mount Waialeale...Lihue Airport...Kaneohe and Punaluu Pump.  March records were broken at Moloaa...Waimanalo and Pahala.  Lihue airport and port Allen have exceeded their normal rainfall total for the year and Honolulu airport has already passed its rain total for all of 2005.  It is ironic that the wettest month ever at Mount Waialeale comes only three months after its driest December on Record and second driest month overall.
 
The table below lists preliminary rainfall information for a number of locations across the state. Included are rain totals since the wet weather pattern began 42 days ago and rainfall for March. For select locations...rainfall records for March and the wettest month on record are also listed.   For March rainfall totals...one asterisk means a new March record.  Two asterisks refer to a new wettest month on record. This is only for stations with records that extend prior to 1960.

 

                   RAIN SINCE MARCH    RECORD    RECORD FOR   
                     FEB 19   RAIN     MARCH    ANY MONTH/YR
KAUAI...
MOUNT WAIALEALE          130.40  93.71** 81.95(1951)  90.07 APR71
LIHUE AIRPORT             43.61  35.95** 14.54(1951)  22.91 DEC68
MOLOAA                    29.87  23.84*  21.97(1951)  31.49 JAN56
PRINCEVILLE               28.68  22.32   29.89(1951)  29.89 MAR51
OAHU....
PUNALUU PUMP              46.93  37.55** 35.21(1920)  36.70 JAN22
WAIMANALO                 29.20  22.29*  19.43(1963)  28.21 JAN16
KANEOHE                   26.70  16.91** 20.10(1991)  26.54 JAN23
MOANALUA                  18.71  15.87   24.17(1951)  24.17 MAR51
HONOLULU AIRPORT          16.18  13.90   20.79(1951)  20.79 MAR51
MOLOKAI....
MOLOKAI AIRPORT            6.42   6.01   19.34(1951)  19.34 MAR51
LANAI...
LANAI CITY                12.90  12.30   21.59(1951)  21.59 MAR51
MAUI...
HANA AIRPORT              13.75   7.48   37.28(2004)  40.86 APR89
KULA                      11.36  10.85   14.24(1944)  22.75 JAN71
WAILUKU                    9.36   8.75   14.08(1967)  22.38 JAN80
ULUPALAKUA                 8.57   7.69   11.35(1967)  15.28 JAN59
KAHULUI AIRPORT            5.76   4.17   10.90(1967)  17.52 JAN16
BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII...
MOUNTAIN VIEW             48.61  39.94   79.56(1980)  79.56 JAN80
HILO AIRPORT              31.73  26.41   49.93(1980)  50.82 DEC54
PAHALA                    31.10  30.14*  28.93(1980)  40.52 DEC27
KAPAPALA RANCH            30.16  29.18   40.66(1980)  45.04 NOV90
PAHOA                     26.48  22.26   45.90(1942)  60.10 NOV15